Andrew Stephenson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department is giving to strengthen democracy and parliamentary oversight in Sri Lanka.

Mr Hugo Swire

Through our bilateral support to Sri Lanka, we are seeking to strengthen democracy, improve good governance and the rule of law. We funded a programme of voter education and support to domestic election observers during the January and August elections at a cost of £120,000. Staff from the British High Commission in Colombo were involved in the EU Election Observer Mission both in the run up to and on the day of the 17 August parliamentary elections.

We are working closely with others, including the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, on building the capacity of the new Parliament and on strengthening political parties. We welcome the involvement of UK Parliamentarians, including the recent visit of my hon. Friend, in supporting this work.

Our spending on democracy related projects this year will be around £200,000. We are also supporting a project to provide training to local media in investigative journalism techniques, which should help strengthen freedom of expression in Sri Lanka.