Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will call on the Saudi Arabian authorities to take further steps in line with their international obligations to protect the welfare of prisoners of conscience, including Mohammed Fahad al-Qahtani allegedly held in a wing reserved for inmates with mental disorders and assaulted on 26 May 2022.

Saudi Arabia remains a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office human rights priority country. No aspect of our relationship with Saudi Arabia prevents us from speaking frankly about human rights. We raise human rights with the Saudi authorities at all levels, including ministerial channels. This includes raising individual detentions. The Minister responsible for Human Rights discussed detentions with the Saudi Ambassador to the UK on 27 May and raised concern about prison conditions during his visit to Saudi Arabia in February 2022.