Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what (a) human rights issues and (b) human rights abuse cases the Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa raised with his Bahraini counterpart at the UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group on 17 October 2019.

We regularly discuss human rights and reform with the Government of Bahrain, including at the biannual UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group. We welcome the progress made by Bahrain on their reform programme, including the introduction of the new legislation on alternatives to punishment and new proposed legislation on juvenile justice. Bahrain remains a Foreign and Commonwealth Office human rights priority country and the British Government continues to encourage the Government of Bahrain to meet its human rights obligations, in both public and private conversations.