Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will set out the criteria used to assess whether diplomatic protection is provided following the torture or imprisonment of a British citizen whilst overseas.

Diplomatic protection is a mechanism under international law according to which a State may seek to secure reparation for injury to one of its nationals, on the basis that the second State has committed an internationally wrongful act against the national. The general threshold conditions required in order for a State to consider whether or not to exercise diplomatic protection are generally accepted to be: (i) the commission of an internationally wrongful act; (ii) the exhaustion of local remedies; and (iii) proof of nationality, or, in the case of a dual national, predominant nationality. Diplomatic protection is rarely used. Any request for diplomatic protection would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.