Foreign Office cuts will weaken oversight of international law, MPs warn

Cross-party group says closure of humanitarian unit will undermine monitoring of legal violations and arms exports

MPs have expressed alarm at the closure of the Foreign Office’s international humanitarian law unit, warning it “will impair the UK’s ability to anticipate, assess and respond to serious violations of international law across multiple contexts”.

News of the closure, revealed by the Guardian, was raised with Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions this week by the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, Iqbal Mohamed. Starmer said the work would be undertaken by another team as part of a restructuring.

However, he made no reference to the ending of the Foreign Office contract with the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project, run by the Centre forInformation Resilience, which monitors incidents of concern in Gaza, the West Bank and, more recently, Lebanon.

In a letter to the foreign secretary, Yvettte Cooper, the cross-party group of MPs asked how the closure aligned with the government’s stated commitment to upholding international law and ensuring rigorous compliance with the UK’s arms export licensing criteria.