Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, as part of their Official Development Assistance, they support campaigns for legislative change in other countries where such change would permit actions in those countries which are criminal offences in the UK.

DFID is championing Sustainable Development Goal 16, which focuses on ‘peace, justice and inclusion’. We are supporting the strengthening of rule of law in a range of countries. For example, DFID’s Rule of Law Expertise UK (ROLE UK) programme is a collaboration with the UK legal sector to make its expertise, provided on a pro bono basis, available to strengthen legal and judicial systems in developing countries. While much of ROLE UK’s work is in the area of human rights, it does not engage in advocacy around legislative changes. DFID and its partners always work within the law of the countries in which we are operating.