Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on whether the speaker of the parliament of the Kurdistan region of Iraq is being impeded in fulfilling his role.

On 12 October 2015, during a period of heightened tensions between Kurdish parties over the extension of the Kurdistan Regional Government President’s term, we understand that the Speaker of the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament was denied access to Erbil. Our Ambassador in Baghdad and Consul General in Erbil have raised this issue with senior members of the Kurdistan Regional Government and underlined the importance of all parties working together to resolve this issue peacefully, in the spirit of compromise and respecting democratic principles.