To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, for what reasons his Department did not include Saudi Arabia in Appendix One of its publication entitled HMG Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty 2010-2015.

The criteria used in 2010 to draw up the list of priority countries within the “HMG Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty 2010-2015” are set out in that document. They are:

1. The ability to make progress against three goals. (1/ an increase in the number of abolitionist or moratorium countries; 2/ a reduction in the numbers of executions; and 3/ ensuring EU minimum standards are met).

2. Willingness of country to engage on the abolition of the death penalty

3. Numbers of executions

4. Lack of minimum standards/transparency

5. Global influence of country concerned/ impact of country’s abolition elsewhere in the world

The judgement made in 2010 was that available Government resources should focus on countries ready to engage in a dialogue about capital punishment likely to lead to reform. Many of the countries prioritised in 2010, including Tunisia, Morocco, China and the USA, have implemented reforms in the intervening five years. For example, the Caribbean has maintained its de facto moratorium. The most recent comprehensive list of countries in which we actively oppose the use of the death penalty was included in the FCO's 2014 Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report.