Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if the Government plans to revise its Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty 2010-15.

There was significant progress towards global abolition of the Death Penalty between 2011 and 2015. In 2014, only 22 countries executed people; while 140 countries were abolitionist in law or practice. The UK used targeted diplomacy and financial support for international non-governmental organisations, Parliamentarians and human rights lawyers in our efforts to persuade other governments to abolish the Death Penalty. Work continues under this strategy, and we would like to see the long term trend towards abolition continue throughout this Parliament.