Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he raised the issue of the death penalty and executions of mentally ill prisoners and those arrested for non-violent drug offences on his recent trip to Pakistan.

The UK remains firmly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. Abolitionist work is high on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) agenda and is part of the day-to-day work of all diplomatic missions to countries that retain the death penalty. The FCO Human Rights and Democracy Report 2015 makes clear our views on the death penalty and the resumption of executions in Pakistan.

During his visit to Pakistan in November, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), raised our human rights concerns and the importance we attach to upholding the rule of law. We continue to raise our concerns about the death penalty with the government of Pakistan and urge compliance with its international obligations.