Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 19 January 2010.
Rosie Cooper
Labour, West Lancashire
2:30,
19 January 2010
What recent steps he has taken to encourage the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ivan Lewis
Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
We continue to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and I have discussed her situation with Burma's neighbours and the UN Secretary-General. We have made it clear that the elections cannot be credible if political prisoners are not free and able to engage in an inclusive process.
Rosie Cooper
Labour, West Lancashire
While the world watches, Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her sentence is in its final stages. Can the Minister indicate what real chance there is that she will be released? What intelligence does he have on the situation?
Ivan Lewis
Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
I say to my hon. Friend that the charges were trumped up and the trial was bogus. In any decent, objective, reasonable criminal justice system, they would have been thrown out, Aung San Suu Kyi would have been acquitted and we could have moved on. The reality is that we are not very optimistic about the regime and its behaviour towards Aung San Suu Kyi or the other 2,100 political prisoners.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
