Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Egypt about recent arrests of students, and the placing of private security companies, on university campuses there.

The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), asked that the Egyptian government address the large number of people being held in detention during his meeting with President Al-Sisi at the UN General Assembly in New York on 23 September. John Casson, our Ambassador in Cairo, discussed the recent university protests with Ahmed el-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, on 14 October. The UK believes that freedom of expression, including the right to protest peacefully, is important in any democracy.