Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to allow proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club to be made available to UK charities for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.

In a statement announcing the sale of Chelsea FC and in subsequent statements, Mr Abramovich stated that a charitable foundation would be set up, where all net proceeds from the sale would be donated. Humanitarian experts outside of Government are now responsible for the highly complex process to establish this foundation to manage and distribute the proceeds for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine. The proceeds are currently frozen in a UK bank account. Any movement of the proceeds requires a licence from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.