One Year on and Still No Right to Consular Assistance, Despite Labour Promise
By Malak Khalil, Advocacy and Survivor Participation Fellow
With the Labour party conference underway, there is much scrutiny of the Government’s first year in power. Despite rare cross-party agreement from all four major parties that reform of consular assistance is needed, one manifesto commitment that has so far made little progress is the Government’s promise to introduce a legal right to consular assistance. No legislation has yet been tabled in Parliament.
Survivors and civil society have long called on the UK to reform its approach to consular assistance, which is the support provided by UK embassies or consulates when British nationals face legal or humanitarian difficulties overseas. Currently, it is provided at the discretion of the UK Government and is not a legal right. This means British nationals — including those in politically sensitive situations or who have suffered serious human rights abuses, including torture — may not receive the support they urgently need.
Every year, an estimated 5,000 British nationals are arrested abroad. REDRESS has repeatedly called for the UK to make consular assistance a legal right, particularly in cases where there is a risk of human rights abuses such as incommunicado detention, unfair trials, or torture – with 188 new cases of torture or ill-treatment reported by British nationals in 2023 alone. In 2024, REDRESS published a set of principles outlining the case for introducing a legal right to consular assistance for British nationals abroad and how this right might take shape.
Establishing a legal right to consular assistance would send a clear signal that the UK will stand by its citizens and their families, no matter where they are in the world.
The cases against many British nationals detained abroad will adhere to acceptable international legal standards. However, some will involve arbitrary detention, which is on the rise globally — where individuals are held without due process, on false pretences — or face sham trials. Victims of arbitrary detention are particularly vulnerable to torture and other human rights abuses. Their families are often left in the dark, unable to contact their loved ones and with little information about their wellbeing.
Currently, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office provides some form of assistance to over 1,700 British nationals detained overseas, but others are not so lucky. Dual nationals, in particular, are often denied consular access by detaining states — even in high-profile cases. This was true in the cases of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (Iran) and Alaa Abd-El Fattah (Egypt). This has also been true for some sole British nationals, as is the case in the ongoing pre-trial detention of Jimmy Lai (Hong Kong). Despite the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) finding that all three individuals were or are unlawfully and arbitrarily detained, the respective governments have refused to grant the UK consular access.
There are at least seven British nationals arbitrarily detained abroad according to decisions from the UNWGAD, and others who don’t have UNWGAD support. One recent case is that of Craig and Lindsay Foreman, the couple from West Sussex who were arrested on 3 January 2025 in Kerman, Southern Iran, on suspected espionage charges. Cases like theirs highlight the urgent need for the Government to bolster its approach to the arbitrary detention of its nationals.
The UK should:
- Introduce legislation in the next parliamentary term to introduce a legal right to consular assistance in cases where there have been serious human rights violations (or where there is a risk of them occurring).
- Introduce a Special Envoy for Complex and Arbitrary Detentions (often referred to as a ‘hostage envoy’) with sufficient authority, mandate, and resources to lead diplomatic responses, while treating families as trusted partners.
- Lead by example internationally in protecting the rights of British nationals detained abroad.
For vulnerable British nationals in precarious detention situations and their families, change cannot come soon enough.
Photo: CC by Jessica Taylor
