Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of levels of freedom of religion and belief in Hong Kong.

The UK is committed to protecting the right to Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) and freedom globally. We continue to monitor FoRB in Hong Kong through our regular Six-monthly Reports to Parliament and interactions with local faith leaders. In our latest report, published on 19 September, we noted religious practice is generally not restricted in Hong Kong, with a variety of religious practices coexisting across the territory. However, it is clear many of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Hong Kong's Basic Law are being curtailed under the guise of national security. China's imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong represents a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The Foreign Secretary raised our concerns regarding the erosion of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong with Foreign Minister Wang Yi on 5 December. In line with the UN Human Rights Council recommendation in its International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights report on Hong Kong, we urge the Chinese authorities to repeal the NSL.