Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the decision of the United States Government to ease some of the sanctions placed on Venezuela.

The FCDO works very closely with US, Canadian and European allies on Venezuela and we will continue to coordinate our efforts to help encourage an end to the political crisis in that country and a return to democracy. The US and UK sanctions regimes are entirely distinct. Unlike the US, the UK has never imposed sectoral sanctions on Venezuela. The UK only has individual sanctions in Venezuela, targeted against individuals who have undermined democracy, engaged in grand corruption, or been involved in human rights abuses.