Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what role the Government has played in assisting the Bahraini authorities in (a) developing and (b) implementing new criminal sentencing arrangements.

Bahrain has brought in new legislation related to alternative sentencing and has already started to implement provisions under this new legal framework. We welcome this positive move in reforming the judicial system. UK expertise have supported this process.

In a recent statement from the Embassy of Bahrain they confirmed that “To date, 388 men, 52 women, and 11 young offenders have had potential prison time replaced by alternative sentences, and a number of further cases remain under consideration by the judiciary.”

This law makes Bahrain the first country in the Middle East to introduce separate alternative sentencing legislation.