Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with her counterpart in the Netherlands on the operation of unlicensed police stations by the Chinese government.

As I said to the House in my statement on 1 November, reports of undeclared ‘police stations’ in the UK are of course very concerning and are taken extremely seriously. Any foreign country operating on UK soil must abide by UK law.

In the specific case of the alleged overseas police stations, as I stated to the House on the 1 November, I have spoken to the police and I am assured that they are investigating allegations of unlawful activity. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further on operational matters, including on the status of potential international collaboration.

We do maintain a good relationship with various international counterparts and regularly engage with others on the issue of transnational repression more widely.