Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she plans to review sanctions on Russian assets: and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation licensing rules to require owners to maintain sanctioned properties.

We keep our sanctions powers, regimes, designations and measures under review to respond to new developments and changing circumstances.

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) may issue general or specific licences on behalf of His Majesty's Treasury to allow activities otherwise prohibited by an asset freeze, such as payments for existing obligations or property maintenance. However, a licence only permits these actions - it does not require the designated person to carry them out. Maintenance or repairs will occur only if they choose to do so.