Kerry McCarthy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with (a) the Sultan of Brunei or (b) his representatives on the introduction of sharia criminal law in Brunei.

Mr Hugo Swire

We remain concerned about the introduction of sharia criminal law in Brunei and have raised the matter with Brunei on several occasions. I raised the issue with Foreign Minister, Pehin Lim in October 2013. Senior Minister of State, my Rt Hon Noble Friend Lady Warsi, visited Brunei and raised our concerns with HM The Sultan, Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed, the Attorney General and State Mufti on 19 April. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice, my hon Friend the Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Mr Vara), discussed the implementation of sharia with Brunei’s Attorney General at the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting on 6 May. We set out our concerns at the Universal Periodic Review of Brunei at the Human Rights Council on 2 May. We will continue to raise this issue with the Bruneian authorities.