Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is towards the proposal by the French government for permanent members of the UN Security Council to suspend use of the veto in cases of alleged genocide.

The French initiative offers an important contribution to the wider debate on reform of the Security Council and we welcome the interest it has generated. The United Kingdom wholeheartedly supports the principle that the Security Council must act to stop mass atrocities and crimes against humanity. We cannot envisage circumstances where we would use our veto to block such action.