Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether UK development funding for the Nigeria Countering Organised Crime and Corruption programme has (a) directly and (b) indirectly been used to support Nigeria's Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

The UK Government's Conflict, Stability and Security Fund's (CSSF) Countering Organised Crime and Corruption programme, which supports capacity building of Anti-Kidnap Coordination Units in Nigeria, has not provided any support or training to Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) units or officers.

Through our CSSF-funded Nigeria Policing Programme, which ended in March 2020, FSARS officers participated in training on amended Nigerian police guidance designed to improve human rights, training on public finance, and community policing workshops. The Nigeria Policing Programme was part of our Security and Justice Reform Programme, which is working to help deliver a criminal justice system that better protects the human rights of all Nigerians. Through our support to the CSSF-funded North East Public Safety and Security Programme (part of which is delivered jointly with USAID) three radios issued to Borno Police Command police units working to improve local security and to counter violent extremist organisations were distributed to the local FSARS Unit. These were returned after FSARS was disbanded. The North East Public Safety and Security Programme is part of our North East Nigeria Security, Conflict and Stabilisation Programme, working to help stabilise one of Nigeria's poorest and most fragile regions.

The UK Government will continue to support police reform in Nigeria, working with the Nigerian Government and international and civil society partners to improve the accountability and responsiveness of the Nigerian Police Force in line with its human rights obligations. The Nigerian authorities must uphold human rights and the rule of law, investigate any incidents of police brutality and hold those responsible to account. We will continue to monitor the response to the recent protests closely.