Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on reported (a) killings, (b) detention and (c) torture of LGBT people in Chechnya.

Our Embassy in Moscow is aware of, and urgently looking into, recent reports of further persecution of the LGBT community in Chechnya. We know of the murder of at least three members of the LGBT community earlier in the year and the torture and detention of many others. In response, the Government has increased the support we provide to Non Governmental Organisations(NGOs) working in Russia on LGBT rights and continue to call on the Russian Government to hold a full investigation.