Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to help ensure that sanctions on Russia do not prevent ongoing humanitarian work in (a) Ukraine and (b) Russia.

We are clear that any sanctions must not impede humanitarian delivery. To guard against the unintentional humanitarian impact of sanctions, the UK's sanctions on Russia provide for a range of humanitarian licensing grounds to facilitate humanitarian activity. New sanctions policies will consider possible humanitarian impact and we continue to consider all options available to mitigate this, including general licences and humanitarian exceptions where appropriate. We have called on Russia to enable humanitarian access and safe passage for civilians to flee the violence and we have worked tirelessly with partners to ensure the demand for Russia to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law is clear.