Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will formally acknowledge Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to be a hostage under the terms of the 1982 Taking of Hostages Act in response to recent public statements to that effect by Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister.

We do not accept our nationals being used as diplomatic leverage and have repeatedly made this clear to Iran. We remain committed to securing the immediate and permanent release of arbitrarily detained dual British nationals in Iran, including Nazanin. We will continue take any action we judge will help secure her permanent release, keeping under review what we judge to be in her best interests. They must be able to return to their families in the UK. We call on President Raisi's administration to start to set a new course for Iran by releasing them.