Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of Commonwealth countries that retain apostasy laws.

Her Majesty's Government remains firmly committed to the promotion and protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief around the world. Criminalising apostasy runs contrary to this human right and we oppose it for that reason. We do not currently hold information on the number of Commonwealth countries that criminalise apostasy, but data collected by Pew Research Centre in 2014 found that 25 countries worldwide had some form of apostasy law or policy.

We do not hold these details and it is difficult to obtain accurate data. We will speak with our non-governmental organisations to see if they hold information