Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the refusal of the authorities in Hong Kong to allow imprisoned British citizen Jimmy Lai to meet with his legal representative Timothy Owen KC.

We remain concerned about the targeting of pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong and are following these cases carefully. For data protection reasons I cannot share information about an individual without their permission.

Accredited diplomats at our Consulate-General in Hong Kong will continue to attend Mr Lai's court proceedings.

We are analysing the recent interpretation of the Hong Kong National Security Law by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. As we have said, the National Security Law is being used to curtail freedoms, punish dissent and shrink the space for opposition, and we consider it to represent a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.