Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what additional steps the (a) UK Government and (b) UN are planning to take in response to the human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Province of China against the Uyghur Muslims.

The Government will continue to demonstrate international leadership to hold China to account for its gross violations of human rights in Xinjiang, including at the UN. On 6 October 2020, the UK and 38 other countries joined a statement at the UN Third Committee in New York expressing deep concern at the situation in Xinjiang. On 12 January, the Foreign Secretary announced a robust package of measures to help ensure that British organisations, whether public or private sector, are not complicit in, nor profiting from, the human rights violations in Xinjiang. We have also repeatedly urged China to allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner unfettered access to the region.