To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on (a) the number of people in prison in India who have been sentenced to death and (b) the proportion of those sentenced to death who are (i) Sikh and (ii) political prisoners.

Publicly available figures indicate that there are 476 individuals who have been sentenced to death in India. The Government have received no reports on the breakdown of this figure by religion.

It is the long-standing policy of the British Government to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle. While I was in New Delhi on 19 February, as part of the Prime Minister's delegation, I raised our concerns with Ranjan Mathai, the Foreign Secretary at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. The British Government will also continue to make their position clear to the Indian Government, both bilaterally and through the EU, and urge them to introduce a formal moratorium with a view to eventual abolition of the death penalty.

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the debate on the ‘Death Penalty (India)’ on 28 February 2013, Hansard, columns 492-529.