Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department have had with representatives from the UK's Sikh community on the UK's military role in the 1984 raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar; and if he will commission a public inquiry into UK involvement in that event.

I appreciate that tragic events of 1984 are still the source of great, and lasting pain to many in the Sikh community. FCO officials met representatives of the Sikh community in October 2016. The then Minister for Asia, my Rt Hon Friend the Member for Reading West (Mr Sharma) discussed the issue with the Rt Hon Member for Warley (Mr Spellar) and other honourable members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs on 11 January 2017.

The Cabinet Secretary's 2014 investigation into the UK military role in Operation Blue Star concluded that UK assistance was advisory, ended several months before the operation and had limited impact on the tragic events that followed. I am satisfied that the Cabinet Secretary's investigation dealt conclusively with this issue. I do not believe that there is any need to commission a public inquiry.