Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what processes her Department has in place to ensure that freedom of religion or belief abuses are being monitored and taken into account as decisions are being made to sanction people responsible for human rights abuses.

The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities. Promoting the right to FoRB is one of the UK's longstanding human rights priorities.

The Global Human Rights (GHR) sanctions regime gives the UK a powerful tool to hold to account those involved in serious human rights violations or abuses around the world. All designation decisions must be taken in accordance with the designation criteria set out in the regulations. We have also published a policy note setting out factors that are likely to be relevant to whether a person may be designated under the GHR sanctions regime. We keep all evidence and potential designations under close review. We will consider targets, guided by the objectives of the sanctions regime and the evidence.