Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan) in response to the question from the hon. Member for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber, during the Urgent Question on Gaza: UK Assessment of 14 May 2025, Official Report, column 353, if he will specify (a) which responsibilities under international law and (b) what type of assessments he was referring to; and on what date did his Department last conduct one of these assessments.

The UK is fully committed to international law and respects the independence of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It is the Government's long-standing position that any determination as to whether genocide has occurred is a matter for a competent national or international court, and not for governments or non-judicial bodies. This case is ongoing, and we await their decision.

As soon as the Foreign Secretary took office, he ordered a review into Israel's compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL), to meet the statutory obligation, set out under the UK's Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. This assessment found that there were possible breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in the areas of treatment of detainees and humanitarian access and relief and that there was a clear risk that UK export items might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law. The Government therefore suspended all relevant licences for export to Israel on 2 September 2024, except for exports to the global F-35 programme. Our IHL assessments continue regularly, and recent assessments have maintained this position. Ultimately it is for a court to decide if a breach has occurred.