Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will take steps to protect UK residents with links to China from potential intimidation from the Chinese state.

We keep potential threats in the UK under constant review, and take protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK very seriously.

The Home Office works closely with departments across Whitehall and with devolved administrations to ensure that the public are free to engage in our democratic society without fear of the regimes that they have tried to leave behind. As part of their work, Defending Democracy Taskforce is reviewing the UK’s approach to transnational repression to ensure we have a robust and joined up response across government and law enforcement.

The National Security Bill, now in its final stages, represents the biggest overhaul of state threats legislation in a generation, and will drastically improve our tools to deal with the full range of state threat activity. The Bill contains provisions that will leave those seeking to coerce, for, or with the intention to benefit, a foreign state liable to prosecution in a way that they currently are not. Those convicted could face up to 14 years in prison.

Any attempts by foreign states to coerce, intimidate, harass, or harm individuals or communities here in the UK will not be tolerated.