Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government has taken to address restrictions on civil society in Egypt.

Ministers and senior officials regularly raise human rights concerns with the Egyptian authorities, including the restrictions on civil society.

The Prime Minister raised the ongoing 'Foreign Funding' NGO case with President Sisi when they last met on 20 September. She stressed the importance of NGOs being able to operate in Egypt. I made a statement on the reopening of the case in March, and I and senior officials have raised it with the Egyptian authorities on several occasions.

Following the Egyptian Parliament's passing of the draft Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Law on 29 November, I made a statement (available on the gov.uk website) on 1 December and 13 January expressing our concern with the draft law and the restrictions it will enforce on civil society. Senior officials and I have raised concerns about the NGO law with the Egyptian Government and Parliament in private on a number of occasions. Senior officials raised this most recently on 11 January.