Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the human rights situation of the Uighur people in China in respect of reports of rape, torture and forced sterilisation.

The 3 February BBC report into this issue offers deeply distressing testimony of the rape, torture and dehumanisation of Uyghur women in Xinjiang detention centres. It is a further, compelling addition to the growing body of evidence of the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang. The Government is committed to taking robust action in respect of Xinjiang. That is why, on 12 January, the Foreign Secretary announced a series of targeted measures to help ensure that British organisations are not complicit in, nor profiting from, the human rights violations in the region. The UK has played, and will continue to play, a leading role in building international pressure on China to change course.