Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to make public statements condemning attacks by public authorities wherever they occur on LGBTI defenders.

The UK's approach to making public statements in cases of attacks on LGBT+ defenders is always informed by advice from civil society groups on the ground. Our first principle is always that we should "do no harm" and we seek advice from local LGBT+ Civil Society Organisations to ensure that our interventions are of genuine benefit to LGBT+ communities. Some interventions are therefore not public but are made privately.