PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Palestinians: Prisoners (9 October 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government has taken to stop UK funding being used to pay the wages of convicted terrorists from the Palestinian Territories in custody in Israeli prisons.

Asked by:
Mark Pritchard (Conservative)

No UK money is used for payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The UK’s direct financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) is used to pay the salaries of PA public sector workers only. Our support is provided through a World Bank trust fund which carries out close monitoring of PA expenditure. The whole process is independently audited, which means we know exactly how our money is spent. We also have robust accounting procedures in place which mean we are confident that our funds do not benefit terrorist groups, and we ensure that our partners do the same.

Answered by:
Mr Tobias Ellwood (Conservative)
15 October 2015