Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Saudi Arabian counterparts on the use of Sudanese child soldiers within the Yemeni civil war during his recent visit to the Gulf.

We raise allegations of human rights issues, including child soldiers, with all parties to the conflict in Yemen. We have been clear that all parties must comply with IHL. We do not hold any specific information relating to the number of child soldiers of Sudanese origin involved in the conflict.

We are firmly committed to ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers and to protecting all children affected by armed conflict.

The UK is an active member of the UN Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), which leads the international response to the issue of child soldiers and child protection. This includes pressing those parties to conflict listed in the UN Secretary-General's annual report on CAAC, including Yemen, to enter into concrete action plans with the UN to verify and release child soldiers.

The UK is also the largest single financial contributor to the office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for CAAC, contributing £800,000 in the last five years. We have shown our support for the SRSG's recently launched Global Coalition for Reintegration (GCR) by joining the 'Friends of Reintegration' group, a forum to generate new ideas for supporting reintegration programmes and for the prevention of re-recruitment of children formerly associated with armed groups. The UK has confirmed it will be increasing its funding to the office of the SRSG for CAAC to £450,000 for the FY19/20 to continue assisting the SRSG with her current mandate, and will be giving an additional £50,000 to fund extended activities pertaining to the GCR.