Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent assessment his Department has made of the human rights situation in Lhasa.

We are concerned about human rights violations in Lhasa and Tibet more widely, including restrictions on freedom of religion or belief and on freedom of assembly and association, reports of forced labour, and reports that boarding schools are being used to assimilate Tibetan children into Han culture.

The UK Government consistently raises human rights issues with the Chinese authorities - the Foreign Secretary did so in February in a meeting with China's Foreign Minister. We also regularly raise Tibet in multilateral fora, for example, in January at China's Universal Periodic Review, and on 20 March as part of our Item 4 statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council.