Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations he has made to his Saudi Arabian counterpart on the release on medical and compassionate grounds of Loujain al-Hathloul.

Our close relationship with Saudi Arabia allows us to raise our concerns about human rights, including on political detainees, in private and in public. We have expressed significant concerns about reports of continuing arrests and arbitrary detentions in Saudi Arabia. Our Ministers, Ambassadors and Embassy in Riyadh have raised concern over the continued detention of Women's Rights Defenders, including Loujain al-Hathloul, at senior levels with the Saudi authorities. We have consistently pressed for due process, raised concerns about the use of solitary confinement, lack of family contact and allegations of torture. I most recently raised the women's rights defenders' cases with the Saudi Ambassador to the UK on 16 November. We continue to raise concerns and are monitoring the situation closely.

The UK signed a statement at the UN Human Rights Council on 15 September. It noted our human rights concerns in Saudi Arabia, regretted the continued detention of Women's Human Rights defenders and called for the release of all political detainees.