Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on British authorities investigating incidents of honour-based violence committed against British Nationals abroad.

There is no ‘honour’ in so called ‘honour-based’ violence (HBV), and we will not allow political or cultural sensitivities to get in the way of tackling these crimes.

The Minister for Asia and the Pacific met political and non-Governmental organisation representatives from the British-Pakistani community on 4 January 2017 to discuss challenges of looking after the interests of British citizens who spend time and have family ties in Pakistan, including on the subject of forced marriage. The Home Office regularly engages with the FCO on this issue, including as part of the work of the joint Home Office-FCO Forced Marriage Unit.