I begin by congratulating David Davis on securing this important debate. I believe that he has sincere, genuine and long-standing concerns in this issue and I will try to do justice to the points that he makes.

I recall the responsible and non-partisan way in which the right hon. Gentleman behaved in the aftermath of the dreadful London bombings. He sought no political advantage, but sought to be a source of unity in this House and throughout the country along with my Front-Bench predecessors. Therefore, my only criticism of him this evening is that, during the course of the debate on these issues, he has repeated unsubstantiated accusations as fact. That is a departure from the way in which he has sought to approach these issues in the past.

I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman is aware that in both of the cases where these issues have been raised—one of which he has mentioned—the individuals concerned, Rangzieb Ahmed and Salahuddin Amin, have been convicted of terrorism offences and no evidence was found to substantiate the claims of UK involvement in mistreatment. Indeed, the gentleman to whom the right hon. Gentleman referred, Rangzieb Ahmed, was recently interviewed in his cell by The Guardian with a Ministry of Justice press official present and the record of this is yet to appear in the media. The same gentleman has an outstanding application for leave to appeal, which, as an active proceeding in a UK court, cannot be referred to in any motion, debate or question, as you are fully aware, Mr. Speaker. Therefore, Mr. Ahmed's case should not be discussed further at present. In both cases, torture allegations were considered only to the extent that they were relevant to the criminal cases. Therefore, the degree to which they have been addressed should not be overstated. The right hon. Gentleman has brought these issues to the House tonight, but he is aware that I am very constrained in my capacity to respond directly to the accusations he makes. However, I will attempt to do justice to the general points that he has alluded to both in the past and in this debate.

I want to place it on record that the Government's policy is that torture is an abhorrent crime and we are fundamentally opposed to it. That principle guides all of the Government's work, including that of the intelligence agencies and armed forces. The Prime Minister addressed recent concerns about the involvement of the security services and armed forces in detention activities in his statement to the House of 18 March. That statement laid out measures to be taken to address these concerns.

International action against torture has been a priority for the Government since the launch of the United Kingdom initiative in 1998. This includes efforts to support wider ratification and implementation of the United Nations convention against torture and the optional protocol to the convention against torture through a combination of bilateral lobbying campaigns, multilateral engagement in the European Union and UN and project work.

For the period 2008-2011, the UK has allocated £5.5 million for overseas criminal justice, prison reform and torture prevention projects. The UK also supports strongly the work of the Association for the Prevention of Torture, the leading non-governmental organisation, which advocated the adoption of the optional protocol to the convention against torture and continues to campaign for its ratification.

My point is that the Government have taken a proactive approach to the work internationally against torture. If that is the case, how is that consistent with the right hon. Gentleman's accusation that the UK Government have colluded in the use of torture? I say with respect to him that the two do not coincide, and that this is not a consistent statement of the facts.

I also say to the right hon. Gentleman that ensuring the welfare of detained British nationals is a priority in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's consular work. Any allegation of abuse is treated very seriously. All consular staff receive training which covers prisoner issues, including what to do when they have concerns over torture or mistreatment. When we have permission from the individual concerned, we can raise concerns with the relevant authorities with a view to ending the mistreatment and, when possible, have the incident investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. In exceptional circumstances, we now consider raising concerns even without an individual's express consent. Even when an individual does not want us to take up their case specifically, our knowledge of it may enable us to lobby far more effectively for improvements in the way in which detainees are treated in general. In many countries we also raise far more general concerns about the treatment of detainees as part of our wider human rights dialogue.