Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government how they can ascertain whether oil sold by India to the UK and other countries has not been refined from Russian oil, thereby circumventing sanctions.

The import, acquisition, supply and delivery of Russian oil and oil products into the UK has been banned since 5 December 2022. The ban uses the well-established non-preferential rules of origin under which products are regarded as originating from a country if there has been substantial, and economically justified, processing in that jurisdiction. Processing is regarded as substantial if it results in the manufacture of a new product such as the refining of crude oil into fuels.

In the three months to February 2023, since the ban came into effect, there has been no marked change in the volume of imports from India compared to the year before.