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Written question asked by Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative) on Tuesday, 20 February 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 22 February 2024. It was answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative) on Tuesday, 27 February 2024 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Sanctions

Question

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) enabling Parliament to exercise oversight of sanctions policy and (b) imposing a duty on His Majesty's Government to lay an annual report before Parliament on sanctions and other related measures adopted on the basis of a relevant human rights purpose as defined by the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act 2018 Section 1(f).

Answer

UK sanctions regimes are established through secondary legislation and are subject to Parliamentary oversight via the scrutiny processes set out in the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 ("SAMLA").

Ministers are also routinely held accountable for the UK's sanctions policy through select committees and Parliamentary Questions. The government will shortly publish a Post-Legislative Scrutiny Memorandum for SAMLA, following the publication of the UK's first sanctions strategy in February 2024.

In 2022, Parliament amended SAMLA to streamline some of the processes SAMLA originally established, including for reporting.

We have set out the UK government's approach to using sanctions as a foreign and security policy tool in our strategy published on 22 February (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/deter-disrupt-and-demonstrate-uk-sanctions-in-a-contested-world-uk-sanctions-strategy). The strategy explains how we continue to strengthen our sanctions to deter and disrupt malign activity and to protect the UK.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
14774
Session
2023-24
Related items
Deposited Paper DEP2024-0206
Thursday, 22 February 2024
Deposited papers
House of Lords
House of Commons
Subjects
Sanctions
Legislation
Sanctions and Anti-money Laundering Act 2018
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk