Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress has been made on efforts to free the Seamen Guard Ohio crew.

We continue to follow this case closely, raising it at Ministerial and Official level at every opportunity, as we have done since November 2013. The case has now been raised at Ministerial level 38 times since November 2013. The Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) raised it for the fifth time in a letter to Prime Minister Modi in June. I raised the case in April with the Foreign Secretary of India while he was in London and most recently in May during my visit to India when accompanied by the British High Commissioner I also visited the men in prison. While we cannot interfere in the Indian legal process, we will continue to use every opportunity to raise the case at all levels.