Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to increase resources for enforcement agencies to (a) investigate and (b) prosecute complex sanctions evasion schemes.

A range of Departments have responsibility for the enforcement of UK sanctions, including the Home Office, Department for Business and Trade, Department for Transport and HM Treasury. Resourcing is decided by those Departments and their agencies in conjunction with HM Treasury. I launched a cross-Government review of sanctions at the first Small Ministerial Group on enforcement in October. The review is examining whether we have the right powers, approach, capacity and resourcing on policy, implementation and enforcement, with an urgent focus on strengthening the latter. It is being led by the FCDO in collaboration with key sanctions Departments.