Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department has taken to ensure UK cultural institutions avoid relationships with non-UK organisations that (a) hold or (b) host items taken from Ukrainian territory.

The government is committed to protecting cultural property and combating the illicit trade in cultural objects. We are working with international partners, and the Ukrainian authorities, to protect Ukraine’s cultural heritage and property from unlawful removal and illicit trade.

All UK cultural institutions, and the art market, are required to ensure that the objects which they handle are of lawful provenance. No UK institutions should therefore have dealings with organisations that knowingly receive cultural objects removed from Ukraine without the appropriate permission of the relevant Ukrainian authorities.