Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Written Statement of 21 July 2016, HCWS125, whether his Department has undertaken an assessment of whether the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has committed any breaches of international humanitarian law.

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 21 July 2016, HCWS125, the MOD monitors incidents of alleged International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations using available information which in turn is used to form an overall view on the approach and attitude of Saudi Arabia to IHL. This in turn informs the risk assessment made under the consolidated criteria, i.e. whether there is a clear risk that it might be used in the commission of a serious IHL violation, for the purposes of the arms exports licensing risk assessment. We are not acting to determine whether a sovereign state has or has not acted in breach of IHL, but instead - as Criterion 2(c) requires – we are acting to make an overall judgement.