Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had discussions with her international counterparts on the potential merits of treating Russian diamonds as conflict diamonds under the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

The Kimberley Process (KP) Certificate Scheme was originally designed to combat the trade in conflict diamonds, defined as rough diamonds being sold by rebel groups to fund conflict. While conflict diamonds now represent less than 1 per cent of the global trade in rough diamonds, the narrow definition of conflict diamonds means the KP's ability to deliver on other issues is limited. The UK supports updating the definition of a conflict diamond so the Kimberley Process is better able to address the different types of conflict and actors of those conflicts, and will continue to play a role in discussions within the KP on this and other challenges it faces.