Written question asked by James Naish (Labour) on Wednesday, 11 February 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 February 2026. It was answered by Seema Malhotra (Labour) on Tuesday, 3 March 2026 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Jimmy Lai
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent representations she has made to her Hong Kong and Chinese counterparts on consular access to Jimmy Lai; and how many requests for consular access have been (a) made and (b) granted since his detention began.
- Original answer
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On his questions relating to Jimmy Lai, I refer the Hon Member to the answers provided in the Urgent Question debate on 9 February, and I will keep him and other members updated on all further steps that the UK will take alongside our international partners to call for Mr Lai's release, and for the protection of his health and wellbeing while he remains in detention. On the question of sanctions, the Hon Member will be aware that we never comment on potential designations as to do so would undermine their impact. And on the six-monthly report on Hong Kong, he will be aware that the last such report was published on 23 October 2025, less than four months ago.
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The answer was corrected by Seema Malhotra (Labour)
on Friday, 6 March 2026 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
- Corrected answer
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On his questions relating to Jimmy Lai, I refer the Hon Member to the answers provided in the Urgent Question debate on 9 February, and I will keep him and other members updated on all further steps that the UK will take alongside our international partners to call for Mr Lai's release, and for the protection of his health and wellbeing while he remains in detention. On the question of sanctions, the Hon Member will be aware that we never comment on potential designations as to do so would undermine their impact. And on the six-monthly report on Hong Kong, he will be aware that the last such report was published on 23 October 2025, less than four months ago.On his questions relating to Jimmy Lai, I refer the Hon Member to the answers provided in the Urgent Question debate on 9 February. The government will continue to raise Jimmy Lai's case with the Chinese government at every opportunity - as the Prime Minister did in talks with President Xi during his recent visit to China, and as the Foreign Secretary did with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on 6 November. I will keep him and other members updated on all further steps that the UK will take alongside our international partners to call for Mr Lai's release, and for the protection of his health and wellbeing while he remains in detention.
On the question of sanctions, the Hon Member will be aware that we never comment on potential designations as to do so would undermine their impact. And on the six-monthly report on Hong Kong, he will be aware that the last such report was published on 23 October 2025, less than four months ago.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 112762
- Session
- 2024-26
- Related items
- Grouped for answer
- Yes
- Subjects
- British nationals abroad Diplomatic service China Hong Kong Lai, Jimmy
- Contains statistics
- Yes
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-04-21 17:09:00 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2024-26/112762
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2024-26/112762
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2024-26/112762