Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effectiveness of imposing trade sanctions on Saudi Arabia to tackle human rights abuses in that country.

Saudi Arabia remains a Foreign and Commonwealth Office human rights priority country, particularly because of the use of the death penalty, women’s rights and restrictions on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion or belief. We raise our concerns with the Saudi Arabian authorities using a range of Ministerial and diplomatic channels of communication, including our Ambassador and the Embassy team in Riyadh.