Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make it her policy to amend the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 to (a) strengthen the powers and (b) expand the (i) jurisdictional reach and (ii) scope of the Cyber (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 to help reduce ransomware attacks.

The government is committed to calling out malicious cyber activities that threaten the UK's national interests and economic prosperity. Sanctions are an important part of our diplomatic toolkit, helping us to disrupt ransomware operations.

Our cyber sanctions regime allows us to impose cost and risk on those that carry out malicious cyber activity, and to deter others who consider similar acts. The regime is suitably broad, and allows us to freeze the assets of those around the world who have undermined the integrity, prosperity, or security of the UK and its partners. Under these powers, we have designated seventy-nine people, including sixteen members of prolific Russian cybercrime gang Evil Corp, and one of the senior leaders of LockBit which, at the time, was one of the most harmful ransomware operations affecting the UK.

We will continue to explore future use and implementation of our cyber sanctions regime against ransomware actors as part of a broader range of approaches to combat cybercrime globally.