Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria her Department uses in Overseas Security and Justice Assessments to determine the deployment of UK police abroad; how those criteria are used; and who uses those criteria.

The HMG Overseas Security Justice Assessment (OSJA) guidance issued by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is followed. This sets out a 4 staged process which inform officials’ and Ministerial (if high risk) decisions to authorise a deployment:

1. Stage 1 is an assessment of the human rights risks in country carried out by FCDO posts.

1. Stage 2 is an assessment carried out by operational partner(s) responsible for providing assistance of whether there is a serious risk that the proposed assistance might directly or significantly contribute to any of the following human rights risks identified in Stage 1:

I. Use of the death penalty.

II. Unlawful or arbitrary arrest or detention.

III. Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment (CIDT) including standards of detention.

IV. Unlawful killing and/or use of force (e.g. disproportionate, indiscriminate).

V. Enforced disappearance.

VI. Unfair trial or denial of justice.

VII. Unlawful interference with democratic rights (e.g. freedom of assembly or expression).

VIII. Violations of the rights of the child including recruitment or use of child soldiers.

IX. Refoulement (forced return where danger of torture or CIDT).

X. Human trafficking and/or sexual violence.

XI. Persecution of an identifiable group (e.g. on racial, gender, religious or ethnic grounds) in combination with any of the above violations.

XII. Other violations not already identified or provocation or prolonging of armed conflict or terrorism.

XIII. Support to terrorism or undermine the principles of conflict prevention as defined in HMG’s Building Stability Overseas Strategy (BSOS).

1. Stage 3 summarises any mitigations to the risks identified in Stages 1 and 2.

1. Stage 4 identifies the overall risk level, which includes consideration by the authorising department of any associated political and reputational risk.

The OSJA Guidance can be accessed on the Internet via the following link: OSJA Guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk)