Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2016 to Question 29389, on Yemen: military intervention, whether his Department has made an assessment of the independence and integrity of Saudi Arabia’s internal procedures for investigations as referred to in that Question.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

As the Saudi Arabian Government has publicly announced, British and other foreign advisors will provide advice to the independent committee that will assess Saudi Arabian military activity in Yemen. We are standing by to assist this activity as required.

The UK has been using diplomatic and military channels to engage with Saudi Arabia on compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). I have spoken to the Saudi Ambassador and the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), has engaged with his counterpart on the importance of compliance with IHL.