Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure effective cross-government working on (a) sanctions and (b) export controls (i) policy, (ii) implementation and (iii) enforcement between (A) his Department's Sanctions Directorate, (B) the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation, (C) the Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation, (D) the Export Controls Joint Unit and (E) HMRC.

In October, I convened the first Small Ministerial Group on sanctions, which launched a cross-Government review to examine whether we have the right powers, approach, capacity and resourcing on policy, implementation and enforcement, with an urgent focus on strengthening the latter. This grouping brings together key sanctions Departments: the FCDO; His Majesty's Treasury (with responsibility for both the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation and HMRC); the Department for Business and Trade (with responsibility for the Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation and shared responsibility for the Export Controls Joint Unit with the Ministry of Defence and FCDO); the Department for Transport; and the Home Office.