Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with the Palestinian Authority on the payment of salaries to Palestinians convicted of terror offences.

The UK remains resolute in its commitment to Israel's security. Our clear and long-standing message to the Palestinian Authority (PA) is that the prisoner payments system should be reformed so that it is needs based, transparent and affordable. We continue to raise this with the highest levels of the PA, most recently the British Consulate General Jerusalem raised the matter with the Palestinian Prime Minister's Office in December 2022. We also have robust safeguards in place to ensure that no UK aid is used for payments to Palestinian prisoners, or their families or the Martyrs Fund and will continue to raise this at the highest level.