Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to Human Rights and Democracy: The 2022 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Report, published in July 2023, CP 886, when the government of Bahrain was first informed about the decision to remove that country from the list of Human Rights Priority Countries.

As a courtesy, we informed the Government of Bahrain in the days before the Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report was published. The Report, which details the situation in Human Rights Priority Countries, is retrospective and covers activity during the previous calendar year (2022). The decision to remove Bahrain from the list reflects consistent and systemic progress in a range of human rights areas over a number of years. The UK remains committed to supporting reforms in Bahrain and encouraging the government to meet its human rights commitments.