Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will take steps to tackle the import to the UK of products from illegal settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
There are currently no plans for UK legislation to ban the import of products from illegal settlements. We do not however recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. In order to enable consumers to make a more fully informed decision concerning the products they buy, in December 2009 the UK introduced voluntary guidelines to enable produce from Israeli settlements in the OPTs to be specifically labelled as such. We understand that multiple British retailers who have stocked settlement produce have adopted the labelling policy recommended in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs voluntary guidance.