The UK Government is clear that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka needs to be improved. Long-standing grievances and legitimate calls for truth and reconciliation should be addressed properly to ensure justice for all communities and victims' groups, including members of the Tamil community. It is also important that excavations of Chemmani mass graves are carried out in accordance with international legal standards.

We regularly raise these issues with the Sri Lankan government. Most recently, the Deputy Prime Minister discussed human rights during his visit to Sri Lanka in February, with the President, Foreign Minister, civil society organisations and political leaders in the north of Sri Lanka. I also discussed these issues with Sri Lankan Ministers during their visit to the UK last October.

In addition, the UK leads efforts at the UN Human Rights Council with Core Group partners, to ensure that international attention remains on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. We will continue to encourage the Sri Lankan government to uphold its international human rights obligations, protect civic space and make meaningful progress towards an inclusive political settlement that addresses the legitimate concerns of all communities.

The Government recognises the sensitivities surrounding burial grounds linked to former psychiatric institutions, including Horton Cemetery, and is committed to upholding the dignity of these sites and the memory of those interred within them.

All applications for exhumation are assessed individually and require consents from next of kin, the owner of any related exclusive right of burial and the burial authority to ensure that respect for the deceased person is balanced with a legitimate request from the family or burial authority. A general ban would remove this balance and prevent valid cases from being considered. All applications undergo rigorous scrutiny, and disturbing remains without authority is a criminal offence.

The Law Commission is currently reviewing burial legislation, including the legal provision for exhumation, as part of its Burial, Cremation and New Funerary Methods project (Burial, cremation, and new funerary methods – Law Commission). Its report on this issue is expected to be published in early 2026, and the Government will respond in due course.

The UK Government is deeply concerned by the recent discovery of the mass grave in Chemmani. We remain committed to supporting accountability for human rights violations and we regularly meet the Government of Sri Lanka to discuss reconciliation and accountability and to press for tangible progress, particularly on cases of enforced disappearances. In January, I visited Sri Lanka and met a range of stakeholders including the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, civil society organisations, as well as political leaders in the north of Sri Lanka to discuss human rights. Officials at our High Commission in Colombo maintain close contact with families of the disappeared from across the country, working to ensure their voices are heard, and have raised this issue with the Government of Sri Lanka. We continue to lead international efforts such as at the UN Human Rights Council alongside the Core Group to ensure perpetrators are held to account.

The UK Government is deeply concerned by the recent discovery of the mass grave in Chemmani. We remain committed to supporting accountability for human rights violations and we regularly meet the Government of Sri Lanka to discuss reconciliation and accountability and to press for tangible progress, particularly on cases of enforced disappearances. In January, I visited Sri Lanka and met a range of stakeholders including the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, civil society organisations, as well as political leaders in the north of Sri Lanka to discuss human rights. Officials at our High Commission in Colombo maintain close contact with families of the disappeared from across the country, working to ensure their voices are heard, and have raised this issue with the Government of Sri Lanka. We continue to lead international efforts such as at the UN Human Rights Council alongside the Core Group to ensure perpetrators are held to account.

Approximately 8000 former slaves are buried on St Helena and died after being taken to the island by the Royal Navy's West African Squadron trying to halt the slave trade in the mid-nineteenth century. Their precise origins are unknown. Archaeological research was conducted on human remains unearthed in 2008 during preparatory work for St Helena Airport and a further two studies were subsequently completed. Research conducted concluded that some of the individuals likely originated from the Central Africa region.

The St Helena Government was responsible for the reburial of the remains and set up a Liberated African Advisory Committee to create a master plan for their respectful reinternment and to create a memorial and interpretation centre to honour those who died. The Committee consulted the island's community, National Trust and custodians of international enslavement sites around the world. The UK Government provided support for the reburial which took place on 21 August 2022 with the extensive involvement of the local community.

The St Helena Government is responsible for the protection and preservation of the burial grounds in Rupert's Valley. Human remains unearthed during preparatory work for St Helena Airport were reburied on 21 August 2022 on ground designated as a cemetery under St Helena's Burial Grounds Ordinance, ensuring it is now a protected site.

Approximately 8000 former slaves died after being taken to St Helena by the Royal Navy's West African Squadron trying to halt the slave trade in the mid-nineteenth century; their ancestral homes are not known. 325 Skeletons were unearthed during the construction of St Helena Airport and the UK Government provided support for their reburial on 21 August 2022. St Helena Government plans to create a memorial and interpretation centre to honour those who died.

The UK maintains close contact with the Committee on Missing Persons which is mandated to search for, recover, identify and return to their families the remains of Cypriots from both communities. In July, the UK ensured language was included in the renewal of the mandate for the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus calling on all parties to enhance their cooperation with the Committee on Missing Persons, explicitly through providing full access without delay to all areas and responding in a timely manner to requests for archival information on possible burial sites.

The Secretary of State has delegated authority to issue exhumation licences, and they are now being issued.

I recognise the sensitivities in this issue and I can tell my hon. Friend that an agreement has been reached between the Secretary of State for Transport and the Archbishops’ Council about the exhumation of graves and the reburial of remains in consecrated ground. I can assure my hon. Friend that this will be done with dignity and respect.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what representations Church authorities have made to (a) the Department for Transport and (b) HS2 Ltd on the exhumation of graves on the site of the old church of St Mary's, Stoke Mandeville.

I am extremely sorry that Mrs Bradley found out about the exhumation of her great great grandfather by accident, and we will announce the location of reinterment in consecrated ground in due course. I can tell my hon. Friend that in all cases this will be as near as possible to the original grave or graveyard and that the law requires that HS2 put up a memorial for all those who are reinterred.

My constituent Mrs Bradley’s great great grandfather is buried at St Mary’s, Stoke Mandeville, and she was very distressed to learn by accident that the graves were to be exhumed by construction work linked to HS2. How will the Church of England monitor this to ensure that the exhumations are carried out in the way that my hon. Friend has just described, even on deconsecrated land?

We condemn the improper removal of objects from historical sites. Such a case was brought to our attention in 2013 and UK officials raised the issue with the US Department of Defense at the time. The UK has since commenced collaboration with the US on Cultural Property Protection training.

The UK welcomes the United Nations' 6 November report on Mass Graves, which underlines the scale of the horrific crimes committed by Daesh against humanity. We agree with the report's recommendations, including the pressing need for justice for victims and their families. It is important that the Government of Iraq allocates sufficient resource to this important task so that members of Daesh are held to account for their actions. The report will inform the work of the UN Investigative Team for the Accountability of Daesh in gathering evidence of Daesh crimes, for which the UK has provided £1 million in funding. UK officials in Baghdad regularly raise with the Government of Iraq the need to investigate missing persons and bring perpetrators to justice, but have not directly made representations about the number of criminal judicial processes it is engaged in nor about the planned timeline for exhumations. However, the UK and Iraq co-hosted a conference on 14 November in The Hague in order to discuss next steps on this agenda; attendees included UNITAD Special Adviser Karim Khan, the International Committee of Missing Persons and the Iraqi Chief Justice. The report makes clear the need to ensure that similar crimes are never committed again, and we are working closely with the newly elected Government of Iraq to address the conditions that led to Daesh's rise and ensure peace, stability and security for all Iraqis.

All human remains affected by Phase One of HS2 will be afforded due dignity, care and respect.

The St James’s Gardens burial ground was assessed as part of the environmental impact assessment for the project. Information was presented in the Environmental Statement that was submitted to Parliament in support the passage of the Bill through the House of Commons and House of Lords Select committees respectively.

Since then, further research has been undertaken into the history and development of the St. James’s burial ground to inform the development of design. Archival material relating to the burial ground includes burial records, plans of the layout of the ground, land transfer agreements, newspapers and letters.

A family concerned that a relative has been buried in the wrong plot should immediately alert the relevant burial authority. A licence from the Ministry of Justice would be required to move the body to the correct grave.

The operation of local authority cemeteries is regulated by the Local Authorities Cemetery Order 1977. The then Department for Constitutional Affairs issued guidance to burial ground managers in 2005.

The Ministry of Justice is only aware of one instance since 2010 of a body being buried in the wrong plot in a Northampton Borough Council cemetery.