Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the policy paper entitled UK and Palestinian strategic cooperation: memorandum of understanding, published on 28 April 2025, what steps he is taking with his international counterparts to help build capacity in the Palestinian Authority to hold free and fair elections.

The UK supports the Palestinian Authority's (PA) commitment to delivering its ambitious and necessary 'National Program for Development and Reform'. As part of the UK-PA Memorandum of Understanding, the PA committed to convening Presidential and Parliamentary elections within the shortest feasible timeframe. The UK is spending £101 million this financial year in Official Development Assistance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories directed at humanitarian relief, support for Palestinian economic development, and strengthening PA governance and reform. We continue to encourage the PA to work towards genuine and democratic elections within the shortest feasible timeframe.