Letter from Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP, Foreign Secretary,
to the Chair of the Committee, 16 June 2016

Thank you for your letter of 8 .June about the evidence given to the Home Affairs Committee by the Chief Executive of the College of Policing, regarding the training of foreign police forces.

Your letter goes to the heart of why we use the Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) Human Rights Guidance. The OSJA assessment framework is, we believe, among the world’s best systems for identifying, mitigating and monitoring the risk of unintended human rights violations. Whilst some other countries have screening tools for assessing programmatic human rights risk, OSJAs also require effective mitigation measures, have appropriate clearance channels, and consider reputational risk.

To answer your specific questions, an OSJA assessment covers the full spectrum of serious human rights issues. As a result, we do not believe that any additional human rights assessment tools are necessary. However, project managers do routinely monitor and evaluate the impact of their work using external experts.

Regarding contracts with foreign governments, there is no blanket requirement for such confirmations. However many OSJA assessments do recommend an MOU or other form of undertaking by the assistance recipient to comply with human rights standards.

Finally, the College of Policing have told us they have not submitted any proposals to the International Policing Assistance Board about foreign government contracts that have been rejected on the basis of human rights guidance. A combination of factors have contributed to this, including FCO advice and the College of Po1icing's own internal procedures (which assess human rights and ethical considerations).

We have seen no evidence that demonstrates that UK training has contributed to human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. We strongly believe that UK training, which supports Saudi reforms, ·can make a significant contribution to improving respect for human rights and in encouraging adoption of international standards, including in Forensics training. It is through this cooperation, in the spirit of partnership, that we can support efforts to bring about positive change in countries.

THE RT HON PHILIP HAMMOND MP