Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in Bahrain on (a) democratic participation in that country and (b) programmes aimed at increasing such participation.

In the run-up to Bahrain’s elections in November 2014, the British Embassy in Bahrain held regular discussions with the government of Bahrain and Bahraini political groups to discuss progress on political dialogue and encourage broad participation and engagement in the electoral process.

Following the elections, I discussed democratic participation in Bahrain with the Undersecretary of the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group in December. The British Government will continue to encourage the government of Bahrain to build on the success of the recent elections and move forward with further human rights and political reform