Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many prisoners of conscience in China have been visited by UK diplomatic staff during 2015.

We closely monitor the human rights situation in China and report on individual cases of concern through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy. Working with international partners, UK officials talk to a wide range of human rights defenders. Sometimes it is not possible to meet an individual in person because they are in detention or under house arrest. In these cases, UK officials frequently work with family members and lawyers to maintain contact. We continue to raise cases of concern with the Chinese authorities, including during the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue.