Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an estimate of the number of British National (Overseas) visa holders in (a) Hong Kong and (b) China who do not have access to consular protection.

The FCDO and our embassies, high commissions and consulates worldwide provide consular assistance to British nationals abroad. This includes BN(O)s who, under the Memoranda to the Joint Declaration, are eligible for consular assistance in third countries, but not in Hong Kong, Macao or mainland China. It is not possible to give an exact figure of the number of BN(O)s who live in, or travel to, Hong Kong and China, as this information is not captured by the FCDO. There are an estimated 2.9 million people who retain BN(O) nationality.