To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department has taken to monitor the response of consular posts to reports of British nationals abroad since 2004. (291419)

There are a number of ways in which cases of British nationals alleging mistreatment are monitored. Since the rollout of an effective electronic case management system between 2002 and 2005, Consular Directorate in London has been able to monitor cases in real-time.

Posts have been required since 1 April 2005 to collate statistics on the number of cases where we have raised concerns with the detaining authorities over allegations of torture or abuse.

Finally, we are currently in the process of deploying Consular Regional Directors around the world, whose responsibilities include monitoring the performance of posts in their regions, including on the response of these posts to allegations of mistreatment.