Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what background checks his Department conducted on (a) speakers and (b) participants at the International Ministerial Conference on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative 2022 in London on 28 and 29 November 2022.

The PSVI Conference was attended by around 1000 key stakeholders, including from the United Nations, civil society and at least 57 countries, as well as a wide range of survivors. Background checks were undertaken by FCDO's Safeguarding Investigation Team on attendees, including speakers, to identify if there were any safeguarding concerns. These checks included searches of open-source material and the FCDO's internal case management system.