Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the UK sanctions against Roman Abramovich allow for expenditure on (a) public relations and (b) public affairs firms, under the term of the OFSI consents and licences.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) can only issue licences where specific licensing grounds exist within the relevant sanctions regime and where the conditions of those grounds have been met.
Licensing of professional services of this kind may be permissible under one of a number of licensing purposes. Depending on the facts of any particular application this could be: basic needs, extraordinary expenses, prior obligations, or the routine holding and maintenance of frozen funds or economic resources. It would be for the applicant to demonstrate that the criteria of any licensing purpose were met in their particular circumstances.
It should also be noted that since 10 October 2024, the Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) has been responsible for trade sanctions licensing of standalone services prohibited under the UK's trade sanctions, including professional and business services under the Russia sanctions regime covering areas such as: accounting, auditing, engineering, management consulting, and public relations, as well as energy-related, infrastructure, interception, and shipping services across a range of other sanctions regimes.
It is not possible for OFSI to give a breakdown into granular service categories of previously issued licences. Information on the number of licences issued by financial year is available in OFSI’s Annual Review documents, which are published here: OFSI Annual Reviews - GOV.UK
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the foreign influence registration scheme captures foreign funding donated to UK sources seeking to influence the actions of local councils, including divestment policies in (a) Local Government Pension Schemes and (b) Trident.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) is designed to increase transparency around foreign power-directed activities in the UK. The provision of foreign funding alone does not require registration under either tier of FIRS. Only where an individual or organisation is provided funding by a foreign power and is directed to use that funding to carry out political influence activities, or a wider set of activities for Russia or Iran, may that individual or organisation be required to register.
Political influence activities that have been directed by a foreign power and seek to influence Ministerial and non-ministerial departments, as set out in paragraph 37 of the political influence tier guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-influence-registration-scheme-political-influence-tier), could be in scope of the scheme. This list does not include local councils.
However, activities targeted at local councils may be in scope of FIRS, where directed by Russia or Iran. It would not be appropriate to speculate further on individual scenarios.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2026 to Question 17502 on Shipping: Russia, how many of the (a) 343 unique vessels and (b) 849 occasions have been since 24 March 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
96 of the 849 transits referenced in Question 17502 took place from 24 March 2026 onwards. 91 of these transits were undertaken by unique vessels.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to his Department's press release entitled UK to set end date for imports of Russian diesel and jet fuel via third countries, published on 12 June 2026, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of Russian crude oil entering UK supply chains after processing in third countries.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The licences support flexibility in UK supply and global markets. Regulation 76 of the Russia Regulations (2019) requires businesses to notify Government within 30 days of use, due to low volumes, figures notified to Government on diesel and jet fuel imported into the UK are suppressed to prevent the identification of individuals or businesses. Notification of Russian crude in UK supply chains is a new requirement under the general licence. We do not have comparative data to show trends of imports before this.
The Government has committed to reviewing the licence every two weeks. This involves continually assessing its impact on energy supply, market conditions and other relevant considerations, against our objective to lift the licence as soon as is practicable. As part of this process, we have set an end date of 1 January 2027.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to his Department's press release entitled UK to set end date for imports of Russian diesel and jet fuel via third countries, published on 12 June 2026, what criteria he will use to determine whether the temporary licence can be withdrawn before 1 January 2027.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The licences support flexibility in UK supply and global markets. Regulation 76 of the Russia Regulations (2019) requires businesses to notify Government within 30 days of use, due to low volumes, figures notified to Government on diesel and jet fuel imported into the UK are suppressed to prevent the identification of individuals or businesses. Notification of Russian crude in UK supply chains is a new requirement under the general licence. We do not have comparative data to show trends of imports before this.
The Government has committed to reviewing the licence every two weeks. This involves continually assessing its impact on energy supply, market conditions and other relevant considerations, against our objective to lift the licence as soon as is practicable. As part of this process, we have set an end date of 1 January 2027.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to his Department's press release entitled UK to set end date for imports of Russian diesel and jet fuel via third countries, published on 12 June 2026, what estimate he has made of the volume of diesel and jet fuel imported into the UK under the temporary licence since 20 May 2026.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The licences support flexibility in UK supply and global markets. Regulation 76 of the Russia Regulations (2019) requires businesses to notify Government within 30 days of use, due to low volumes, figures notified to Government on diesel and jet fuel imported into the UK are suppressed to prevent the identification of individuals or businesses. Notification of Russian crude in UK supply chains is a new requirement under the general licence. We do not have comparative data to show trends of imports before this.
The Government has committed to reviewing the licence every two weeks. This involves continually assessing its impact on energy supply, market conditions and other relevant considerations, against our objective to lift the licence as soon as is practicable. As part of this process, we have set an end date of 1 January 2027.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department's press release entitled UK to set end date for imports of Russian diesel and jet fuel via third countries, published on 12 June 2026, what monitoring and enforcement measures will be used to verify that imported diesel and jet fuel are not derived from Russian crude oil after the licence expires.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
HMRC is responsible for enforcing the ban on imports of oil products refined in third countries from Russian-origin crude oil and investigating suspected offences.
HMRC uses a variety of proven methods to detect sanctions breaches, including: risk and intelligence-based checks on goods imported to the UK, auditing businesses involved in the trade of goods subject to sanctions; and collecting actionable intelligence from domestic and international law enforcement partners and the intelligence community.
Importers of diesel and jet fuel may be requested to present evidence of a good's supply chain. In some cases, HMRC officials may require the production of further information relating to the goods.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the consistency of scrutiny applied under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme to Russian-linked institutions compared with institutions linked to other foreign states.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government remains alert to the risk that foreign states may seek to use a range of organisations (including religious and cultural centres), proxies and influence networks, to advance their objectives in the UK.
The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) supports transparency around activity directed by foreign states. We have placed Russia and Iran on the enhanced tier of FIRS, requiring those carrying out any activity in the UK at the direction of the Russian or Iranian states to register or face criminal penalties.
The Government is focused on ensuring compliance with FIRS, including referring cases to the police where we believe a criminal offence has been committed. There will be an annual report on the operation of the scheme, including total numbers of registrations under the enhanced tier, which will be published later this year.
More recently, the Home Secretary has introduced a new designation power enabling her to designate bodies involved in foreign power threat activity, including state-linked proxies and affiliated structures. The UK has also imposed extensive sanctions in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, including sanctions against Vladimir Gundyayev (Patriarch Kirill), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for his public support for and endorsement of Russia's invasion.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken to ensure that organisations in the UK which may be acting at the direction of the Russian state or Russian state-controlled entities, such as the Russian Orthodox Church, are appropriately assessed for compliance with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme established under the National Security Act 2023.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government remains alert to the risk that foreign states may seek to use a range of organisations (including religious and cultural centres), proxies and influence networks, to advance their objectives in the UK.
The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) supports transparency around activity directed by foreign states. We have placed Russia and Iran on the enhanced tier of FIRS, requiring those carrying out any activity in the UK at the direction of the Russian or Iranian states to register or face criminal penalties.
The Government is focused on ensuring compliance with FIRS, including referring cases to the police where we believe a criminal offence has been committed. There will be an annual report on the operation of the scheme, including total numbers of registrations under the enhanced tier, which will be published later this year.
More recently, the Home Secretary has introduced a new designation power enabling her to designate bodies involved in foreign power threat activity, including state-linked proxies and affiliated structures. The UK has also imposed extensive sanctions in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, including sanctions against Vladimir Gundyayev (Patriarch Kirill), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for his public support for and endorsement of Russia's invasion.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential risk that Russian religious or cultural institutions operating in the UK may be used to facilitate foreign influence activity.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government remains alert to the risk that foreign states may seek to use a range of organisations (including religious and cultural centres), proxies and influence networks, to advance their objectives in the UK.
The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) supports transparency around activity directed by foreign states. We have placed Russia and Iran on the enhanced tier of FIRS, requiring those carrying out any activity in the UK at the direction of the Russian or Iranian states to register or face criminal penalties.
The Government is focused on ensuring compliance with FIRS, including referring cases to the police where we believe a criminal offence has been committed. There will be an annual report on the operation of the scheme, including total numbers of registrations under the enhanced tier, which will be published later this year.
More recently, the Home Secretary has introduced a new designation power enabling her to designate bodies involved in foreign power threat activity, including state-linked proxies and affiliated structures. The UK has also imposed extensive sanctions in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, including sanctions against Vladimir Gundyayev (Patriarch Kirill), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for his public support for and endorsement of Russia's invasion.