Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, on how many occasions (a) Saudi Arabia, (b) the United Arab Emirates, (c) Qatar, (d) Bahrain, (e) Kuwait and (f) Oman gave awards to members of the Government (i) without seeking permission from the Government and (ii) regardless of permission being denied 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.