Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Israeli counterparts on the Bill in the Knesset to amend the Prisons Ordinance (Revoking Eligibility for Funding Healthcare Services to Improve Quality of Life for Security Prisoners); and whether he has made representations to those counterparts on the need to ensure that prisoners receive medical care equal to that available to the general public.

The British Embassy in Tel Aviv regularly raises the importance of regularised access to healthcare with the Israeli authorities. We recognise that under International Humanitarian Law, Israel, as the occupying power, has a duty of ensuring and maintaining public health to the fullest extent of the means available to it. The UK Government welcomes any effort to cooperate between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, including in the healthcare sector. The wounded and ill in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) should be able to access the urgent medical care they need.