To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks made by the Rt Hon Mark Field MP on 26 October 2017 (HC Deb, col 233 WH) that in partnership with Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon he would write to the embassies and high commissions in key countries for which he had responsibility, asking them to report on precisely what they are doing to promote freedom of religion or belief, which embassies and high commissions responded; and what they reported.
Answered on
14 February 2018
To date, I have received substantive replies to the letter of 26 October 2017 from our Embassies or High Commissions in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Burma, Nepal, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
As requested in the letter of 26 October, these letters report on the main current and planned activities of those Embassies and High Commissions in the defence and promotion of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). Due to the sensitivities of some of the material contained in those letters it would not be appropriate to disclose their contents in detail. In general terms, the responses received show that those Embassies and High Commissions are using a variety of diplomatic tools to defend and promote FoRB as appropriate for the country in which they are operating.