To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong on the potential use of national security legislation to suspend the Hong Kong Legislative Council; and what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the use of that legislation with the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Answered on
27 April 2020
Under Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, the Hong Kong SAR Government has an obligation to enact national security legislation, however, the Basic Law does not provide a deadline for such legislation to be enacted. While it is a matter for the Hong Kong authorities to decide when and how to bring forward the legislation, we note the risk that any attempt to introduce it before wider concerns about rights and freedoms in Hong Kong have been addressed could further unsettle the situation in Hong Kong. Any legislation introduced in Hong Kong should be consistent with both the letter and the spirit of the Joint Declaration and the Hong Kong Basic Law. The UK Consul General in Hong Kong meets the Chief Executive and her team on a regular basis, and frequently raises the rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Joint Declaration.