Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh.

We are clear that the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) must operate in a manner that meets international fair trials standards. This is a message that we give consistently, both publicly and privately, for example at Bangladesh's 2nd Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council on 29 April 2013.

The Senior Minister of State, my noble Friend the Right Hon. Baroness Warsi raised this at length with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her last visit to Dhaka in December 2013, and also made clear our absolute opposition to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances in all countries.