Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she will take to ensure that Russian Oligarchs are unable to exploit loopholes in sanctions imposed on that group by the Government.

The new dedicated 'Kleptocracy Cell' in the National Crime Agency (NCA) will target criminal sanctions evasion and corrupt assets hidden in the UK. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) works extremely closely with the NCA, and this includes close cooperation on sanctions breaches.  The vast majority of the designations made on 15 March were made possible under new powers in the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act. This has given the Government the ability to immediately designate individuals and entities under an urgent procedure, while evidence is gathered to sanction them under standard processes.