Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps he has taken on ending the maltreatment of Uyghur Muslims in China.

The UK Government remains gravely concerned about the human rights situation in Xinjiang. We have led international efforts to hold China to account for its human rights violations, leading the first two statements on Xinjiang at the UN and utilising our diplomatic network to raise the issue up the international agenda. In February, the Foreign Secretary used a personal address at the UN Human Rights Council to call for China to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, or another independent expert, urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang.

The UK is also committed to taking robust domestic action. On 22 March, the Foreign Secretary announced that the UK has imposed, under the UK's Global Human Rights sanctions regime, asset freezes and travel bans against four senior Chinese Government officials, as well the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the organisation responsible for enforcing the repressive security policies across many areas of Xinjiang.