Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the banning of Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Sixtus Leung from taking office in the Hong Kong Legislative Council by the Chinese government on the Sino-British Joint Declaration; and if he will make a statement.

The status of Yau-Wai-ching and Sixtus Leung is for the Hong Kong' Courts to decide. This issue is still the subject of legal proceedings in Hong Kong. The Joint Declaration and the Basic Law underpin the implementation of 'One Country, Two Systems' and remain the foundations for the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong and the rights and freedoms of its people.