Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the review commissioned by the British High Commission in Colombo into the impact of UK support to the Sri Lankan police will include the training delivered to its special task force by British security firm, KMS Limited, in the 1980s.

The British High Commission in Colombo commissioned a review to look at the impact of UK Government support to the Sri Lankan police from 2016 until 2021, identify lessons learned and make recommendations with regards to future programmes. The current iteration of the UK police training programme began in 2018 and focused on strengthening the police's capacity to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence, promoting gender equality, and community policing. This project contract and Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) programme cycle concluded on 31 March 2022. The British High Commission is considering its approach to any future CSSF programme and its review will be taken into account alongside a number of factors.

The UK Government was not party to the agreement between the Sri Lankan Government and Keenie Meenie Services (KMS) in the 1980s. The Government of Sri Lanka approached KMS without the involvement of the UK, and the UK Government had no ability to intervene in what was a commercial contract between the two parties. This is therefore out of scope of the review.