Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department's policies of the findings of the report by Amnesty International, published on 21 November 2016, entitled, Window-dressing or pioneers of change? An assessment of Bahrain's human rights oversight bodies.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office received a copy of the report from Amnesty International on Monday 21 November. We note that they have made a series of recommendations to the UK Government which we will look at closely. Since 2012, the UK has worked with Bahrain and have supported the establishment of a number of oversights bodies responsible for investigating allegations of human rights abuses.

We believe that the UK support to Bahrain's reform programme is the most constructive way to achieve long lasting and sustainable reform in Bahrain.