Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made representations to his US counterpart on the revocation of sanctions against Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that decision on UK sanctions.

As the Prime Minister said in the House on 22nd January, we are deeply concerned by what is happening in the West Bank. The Government continues to engage with the US at all levels on all our priorities, including security and stability in the Middle East. Sanctions are part of wider UK efforts to support a more stable West Bank and help bring accountability to those who have supported and perpetrated heinous abuses of human rights in the West Bank. Sanctions remain part of our broader political strategy and are designed to effect change, to pressurise, and send a clear signal regarding behaviours.