Malaysia has a rapidly expanding digital economy and a strong trading relationship with the UK in digitally delivered services, worth over £1 billion in 2023. Negotiations on a UK-Malaysia Digital Trade Agreement present an opportunity to reduce barriers and ensure UK firms can compete and thrive in fast‑growing, tech‑driven markets. This could unlock further benefits for a wide range of UK businesses, including fintech firms. We will continue to engage closely with industry as negotiations progress.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the response provided on 10 February to Question 110802.

The UK is a strong supporter of international efforts to assist Rohingya refugees and to work towards a safe, sustainable and dignified solution to their displacement.

The UK regularly raises the Myanmar crisis and the need to assist Rohingya and other refugees with Malaysia and other neighbouring countries. Malaysia is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention but runs its asylum and refugee process in collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

In January 2026, the Malaysian government introduced a centralised biometric registration system for refugees and asylum seekers. The UK is working with international partners to encourage Malaysia to build appropriate safeguards into its registration system and broader asylum and refugee process.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is reshaping its overseas footprint to maximise UK economic growth in line with the Trade, Industrial and Small Business Strategies. Our future network will focus on priority markets and growth driving sectors across DBT objectives in trade policy, inward investment, tackling market access barriers, and supporting UK exporters.

DBT staff overseas work flexibly across trade (trade policy, market access barriers and export promotion), inward investment, economic security and wider HMG objectives. As a result, we do not hold export promotion specific resources allocated separately by country or market. The total DBT overseas resource for the markets in questions will be roughly 470 FTE at the end of March 2026 reducing to a forecast roughly 420 FTE by March 2029. There are no forecasts beyond this point.

We deploy our domestic trade resources flexibly, with delivery aligned to His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner (HMTC) geographic regions. As of January 2026, DBT has 1,396 FTE working on trade domestically (Trade Group and Economic Security and Trade Relations resource) reducing to 1,140 by March 2029.

Planned headcount reductions in domestic staff over the Spending Review period will be managed through rigorous prioritisation; they do not translate into fixed, market-specific staffing levels.

We regularly engage with the Government of Malaysia on a range of international matters, including human rights and humanitarian issues. We continue to encourage all countries to ensure that the rights and safety of vulnerable populations, including the Rohingya, are respected and protected. In July 2025, the previous Foreign Secretary raised Myanmar with the Malaysian Prime Minister.

The Home Secretary has not engaged with Malaysian counterparts since July 2024.

Any police assistance provided to international partners is governed by the FCDO Overseas Security and Justice Assessment (OSJA) process. The OSJA process is an essential tool to ensure that the UK's overseas security and justice assistance meets our human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) obligations, increases respect for the rule of law, and supports UK values.

All requests for England and Wales police officers or staff to deploy overseas to deliver training or capacity building activity (such as the sharing of expertise) is considered by the Home Office under S26 of the Police Act 1996 on a case-by-case basis, in line with the associated OSJA of the proposed activity.

Any assistance provided to Malaysia will have been assessed using OSJA, as well as other risk assessment processes.

The Foreign Secretary met Malaysian PM Anwar on 11 July and discussed Malaysia's climate commitments.

Tackling deforestation and safeguarding the role of local smallholder communities was the focal point of the Minister for Climate's visit in April 2025 when she and Malaysian Minister for Plantations launched the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue Forum promoting deforestation-free crop production.

In March 2025, I launched the UK International Climate Fund (ICF) programme 'Seed to Tree'. I engaged with the indigenous community on establishing seed banks, plant nurseries and translocating saplings for wider forest restoration efforts in Malaysia to combat climate change.

The UK is working with Malaysia and the Netherlands under a UK ICF programme where smallholders (comprising indigenous and local community groups) from across Malaysia are trained to be market-ready producers of sustainable palm oil and deforestation free crops.

The Malaysian authorities have primacy over the investigation into the illegal salvage of HMS Prince of Wales and it would be inappropriate to comment at this stage. Decisions on the preservation of any artefacts will be made once investigations have concluded.

Investigations into the illegal salvage are still ongoing. The Ministry of Defence is unable to provide a response regarding the presence of human remains until these investigations have concluded.

If the remains of British Service personnel are identified, the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) will ensure that they are afforded a dignified military funeral and final resting place.

In unfortunate cases where there may be insufficient evidence, resource or capacity to name the deceased they will remain 'unknown', but be afforded the appropriate dignity and respect. Similarly, in cases where the evidence set may be too broad, remains are afforded a shared, final resting place.

The Malaysian authorities have primacy over the investigation into the illegal salvage of HMS Prince of Wales. As these investigations are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the alleged perpetrators at this stage, or speculate on the future preservation of the artefacts, including any metal recovered, until they have concluded.

The Malaysian authorities have primacy over the investigation into the illegal salvage of HMS Prince of Wales. As these investigations are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the alleged perpetrators at this stage, or speculate on the future preservation of the artefacts, including any metal recovered, until they have concluded.

The Malaysian authorities have primacy over the investigation into the illegal salvage of HMS Prince of Wales. As these investigations are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the alleged perpetrators at this stage, or speculate on the future preservation of the artefacts, including any metal recovered, until they have concluded.

The Malaysian authorities have primacy over the investigation into the illegal salvage of HMS Prince of Wales. As these investigations are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the alleged perpetrators at this stage, or speculate on the future preservation of the artefacts, including any metal recovered, until they have concluded.

The Ministry of Defence has not received any information to suggest any human remains have been found.

While the exact details of Operation Highmast cannot be released to preserve operational security, I can confirm that port visits to Malaysia and Singapore are part of the deployment.

The UK military exercises regularly with allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific. Over the next twelve months, we will be conducting bilateral and multilateral exercises with Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is currently working towards putting in place a driving licence exchange agreement with Malaysia. This is subject to public consultation and the introduction of domestic legislation.

Currently, holders of a driving licence issued in Malaysia who become resident in the UK can drive small vehicles (motorcars and motorcycles) for up to 12 months from the date they become resident in the UK. To continue driving after this period the licence holder must apply for a provisional driving licence and pass both a theory and practical driving test here. If the holder of a driving licence issued in Malaysia is only visiting the UK they can drive using their Malaysian licence for up to 12 months from the date they last entered the UK.