Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September to Question 8243, what recent representations his Department has received from officials in the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq on a strategy for tackling ISIL; and if he will make a statement.

As part of our support to the Government of Iraq, the UK is working closely with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to combat ISIL.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) spoke to the KRG Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani, in April. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Oliver Letwin), visited Erbil from 30-31 August, where he met KRG President, Masoud Barzani.

We are in regular contact with officials of the KRG in this regard and discuss our strategy via a variety of diplomatic, military and humanitarian channels.

The Government has a robust strategy for defeating ISIL and is playing a key role in the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL in Iraq: we are taking military action, supporting inclusive and credible governance, discrediting ISIL’s poisonous ideology, cutting off its finances, tackling foreign terrorist fighters and helping its victims rebuild their lives, including those affected by sexual violence.