Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the training and assistance provided by HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ staff and police to assist or develop local inspection and monitoring of places of custody in Bahrain in 2014–15, whether they have since provided further training and assistance, in particular to the Criminal Investigation Directorate headquarters in Manama; and what assessment they have made of reports of torture at those headquarters and elsewhere in Bahrain.

HMI Prisons delivered refresher training on how to inspect police facilities to the Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission (PDRC) before the latter conducted its police custody inspections. HMI Prisons had no involvement in the inspections themselves. HMI Prisons continues to encourage the PDRC to focus on three key priorities: examining the response to allegations of torture, including the detainee voice in all reports, and producing well structured reports with clear judgements. HMI Prisons has not provided further training on police custody inspection to the PDRC. HMI Prisons has delivered no training to and has had no direct engagement with the Criminal Investigation Directorate.

The UK government continues to urge all allegations of torture or mistreatment in detention to be reported to the Ministry of Interior Ombudsman, whose duty it is to carry out full, independent investigations into these allegations. We will continue to raise concerns about human rights with the Government of Bahrain whenever we have them.

The UK continues to support Bahraini-led reform through a package of technical assistance. We believe it is not good enough to criticise countries from the sidelines. Only by working with Bahrain can we bring about the changes we would like to see in the country. Any assistance delivered by or on behalf of the UK Government complies with our domestic and international human rights obligations.