Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support Uyghurs.

The UK government had led international efforts to hold China to account for its human rights violations in Xinjiang. We led the first two statements on Xinjiang at the UN and have utilised our diplomatic network to raise the issue up the international agenda. On 21 October, a global diplomatic effort by the FCDO helped to secure the support of 43 countries for a joint statement at the UN Third Committee that underlined our serious concerns about the human rights violations occurring in Xinjiang. On 29 October, the Prime Minister raised the situation in Xinjiang in a telephone call with President Xi, as did the Foreign Secretary in her introductory call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on 22 October . Furthermore, the UK has imposed sanctions on senior Chinese government officials and one entity responsible for human rights violations in Xinjiang, and announced measures to help ensure no UK organisations are complicit in these violations through their supply chains. We will continue to work with our partners to increase the pressure on China to change its behaviour.