Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of taking (a) sanctions and (b) other measures against Chinese and Hong Kong officials who are responsible for committing human rights abuses and curtailing democracy in Hong Kong.

The UK Government remains deeply concerned about the situation in Hong Kong and has declared two breaches of the Joint Declaration in the last nine months.

The UK has taken a number of measures already in response to developments in Hong Kong. These include introducing a new immigration path for BN(O)s, suspending our extradition treaty with Hong Kong, and extending our arms embargo on mainland China to Hong Kong. We will not speculate on who may be designated under the UK sanctions regime in the future.

We will continue to engage and coordinate our actions with our international partners as befits our historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong, to call out the violation of their rights and freedoms, and to hold China to their international obligations freely assumed under international law.