Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has received from (a) the Tibetan government in exile and (b) human rights charities on human rights abuses in that country.

Officials regularly meet with human rights non govermental-organistions (NGOs) to discuss the situation in Tibet. They last did so in May, following the UK-China Human Rights dialogue. I will be meeting with representatives from a number of Tibet NGOs later this month.

We also receive occasional updates from the Central Tibetan Administration, also known as the Tibetan government in exile. We believe that meaningful dialogue is the best way to address and resolve the underlying grievances of the Tibetan communities and we continue to urge all sides to restart talks.