Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the response by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on Yemen on 1 April (HL Deb, cols 59–65),  in which years the UK participated in coalition naval enforcement measures in Yemen’s territorial waters that put in effect UN Resolution 2216, adopted by the UN Security Council in April 2015, that prohibited the delivery of arms to Houthi rebels; what steps they have taken in response to the final report of the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen, published on 26 January 2018, which stated that the closure of the port of Hodeidah in November 2017 “had the effect of using the threat of starvation as an instrument of war”; and what assessment they have made of the success of Royal Navy officers in the coalition’s operational command rooms in ensuring the delivery of lawful shipments of food, water and equipment for the maintenance of water treatment plants to Yemen’s ports.

UK naval forces are not operating in Yemeni waters. In November 2017, following an attempted Houthi ballistic missile strike on Riyadh, the Coalition introduced access restrictions on Red Sea ports. These restrictions were lifted two months later following concerted UK diplomacy and additional UK support to the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM). This included the International Development Secretary’s own visit to Saudi Arabia, where she made detailed operational requests on access and pushed for unconstrained access to be granted across the country. Royal Navy Liaison Officers operate in the Royal Saudi Naval Forces headquarters in a liaison capacity only.

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