Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with her Saudi Arabian counterparts on reports of torture and arbitrary detention of political prisoners in that country.

FCDO Ministers and senior officials regularly raise human rights in our engagement with the Saudi authorities. We have consistently pressed for due process and raised concerns about the use of solitary confinement, lack of family contact and allegations of torture. On 26 October 2021, Lord Ahmad spoke to the President of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, and raised a number of human rights issues, including specific cases and women's rights defenders.