Ministerial Oral Question (Correction)

Monday 9th December 2013 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)]

On 29 October 2013, Official Report, column 752, during oral questions to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) asked me about the number of British businesspeople of Chinese origin who joined the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and the Secretary of State for Transport on recent visits to China.

I replied that

“I do not have that information at my fingertips, but I imagine that quite a few of them were. I will write to the right hon. Gentleman with the details”—[Official Report, 29 October 2013; Vol. 569, c.752].

I have written to the right hon. Member with the details, and would like to inform the House that neither the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change nor the Secretary of State for Transport were accompanied by any British business people on their trips. The Chancellor was accompanied by 25 representatives of the technology sector, none of whom were of Chinese origin.