Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the conditions attached as part of the arrangement whereby the government of Nigeria receives security assistance from the UK includes a requirement (a) that individuals accused or convicted of corruption will be prevented from participating in military training and (b) for budget transparency.

The UK welcomes the new Nigerian Federal administration's commitment to tackling corruption as a priority. We continue to support Nigeria in this regard and stand ready to do more. We are scaling up our efforts to help address the political and economic incentives of corruption, the Nigerian authorities' capacity and ability to tackle it, and strengthen how the Nigerian public sector is accountable to the Nigerian people. The training and advisory support that the UK provides to the Nigerian armed forces constitutes assistance in kind and cannot be diverted or misused for corrupt ends. As such it is not subject to conditions related to corruption but when providing security and justice assistance to another nation the Ministry of Defence is required under Her Majesty's Government's Overseas Security and Justice Assistance Human Rights Guidance to consider the possibility of that assistance directly or significantly contributing to a violation of human rights and to identify measures that mitigate this risk.