Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his oral contribution of 22 July 2019, column 1121, on the situation in the Gulf, on what date the US Authorities first communicated with the UK Government on the detention of the Grace 1 Iranian oil tanker by the Gibraltarian authorities.

The US are a close ally and we engage with them routinely on matters of national security. However this was a Gibraltar-led operation which the UK was asked to support in upholding what is a European sanctions regime. We are part of ongoing conversations with the US, with whom we have extensive cooperation on maritime security, and have had for years.