Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on Cuba.

We have deepened our relationship with Cuba through enhanced engagement building on the UK-Cuba 2011 Bilateral Declaration. I recently paid a three-day visit to Cuba, as the first British Minister to visit in nearly a decade. I signed three bilateral Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) during my visit and explained to Cuban Ministers our desire to see an improvement to the bilateral relationship in areas where we have a shared interest. We already have pragmatic cooperation on strategic issues such as counternarcotics, trade and investment, climate change and, more recently on Ebola, where we are co-operating closely in combating the disease in Sierra Leone. Our Embassy in Havana remains active on the ground on human rights and I made clear during my visit our concerns about freedom of expression and association, as well as the need to release prisoners of conscience. I also called on Cuba to ratify the UN Covenants on Political and Economic Rights.