Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Canadian counterpart on the vote in the Canadian Parliament to deem the actions of China on the Uighur population as genocide.

The Government remains gravely concerned about the human rights situation in Xinjiang. The UK plays a leading role in holding China to account for its human rights violations in the region, working closely with international partners, including Canada. We regularly discuss our concerns and related questions of policy with Canada, most recently in a call on 4 March 2021 between the Foreign Secretary and Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau. It is the long-standing policy of the British Government that any judgment as to whether genocide has occurred is a matter for a competent court.