Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether journalists from The Guardian were invited to accompany the Home Secretary on her recent visit to Rwanda with journalists from other UK newspapers; if not, why not; and, further to the Home Office spokesperson’s comments reported in the Press Gazette on 25 April 2022 that the Home Office “fully adheres to the Government Communication Service Propriety Guidance when dealing with members of the media”, whether the decision on whether to invite Guardian journalists took account of the Government Communication Service Propriety Guidance which states that to "work effectively, media officers must establish their impartiality and neutrality with the news media, and ensure that they deal with all news media evenhandedly”.

Media outlets who accompanied the Home Secretary’s visit to Kigali on March 18 – 19 were BBC News, The Daily Express, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, GB News, Press Association, The Sun, The Times. There were also numerous outlets in the region who covered the visit.

Even-handed treatment of the media in accordance with the Government Communications Service guidelines is central to how the Civil Service communicates. Due consideration of the GCS guidelines is undertaken in Home Office communications.

All news organisations were kept informed of the progress of the visit regardless of whether they attended or not.