Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Accepting foreign awards: UK rules, last updated on 24 November 2021, on how many occasions permission was (a) sought, (b) granted and (c) denied in respect of foreign awards being conferred to members of the Government by (i) Saudi Arabia, (ii) the United Arab Emirates, (iii) Qatar, (iv) Bahrain, (v) Kuwait and (vi) Oman between 2014 and 2024.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Honours Secretariat has a record of one request to confer an award on a member of Her Majesty's Government from these six countries. In 2017, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia advised that they wished to confer an award on a member of the Government. Due diligence was carried out before the award was accepted. There are no records of any awards conferred without permission.