Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to prohibit UK firms from providing insurance and other financial services to the Clean Planet, Clean Ocean and Clean Vision before the wider ban on maritime services connected with Russian LNG takes effect; and if he will ensure that there is no delay to and further exemptions from that ban.
Answered by Uma Kumaran - Assistant Whip
The Government continues to use sanctions to constrain Russia's ability to fund its illegal war in Ukraine, having sanctioned more than 3,400 individuals, entities and ships under the UK's Russia sanctions regime.
The Government keeps all sanctions measures under continual review to ensure they are implemented effectively and support our wider objective of increasing pressure on Russia. We remain committed to reducing Russian energy revenues, the single most important source of financing for Russia's war in Ukraine, including through targeting the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sector. It is our long-standing policy not to comment on potential future sanctions designations, specifications or enforcement decisions, as doing so would risk lessening their impact.
We would point you to the Exploratory Memorandum issued in May: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/543/pdfs/uksiem_20260543_en_001.pdf
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps she is taking to promote UK soft power.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Soft power is fundamental to the UK's impact and reputation around the world. It builds relationships, promotes our values, and helps support our growth, prosperity and security.
The Government is determined to make maximum use of all our soft power assets towards these ends, and in particular, our continued support for the British Council and BBC World Service will enable them to maintain their outstanding work across the globe over the current spending review period.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of whether the recent presidential election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was conducted in a free and fair manner.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In accordance with the rest of the international community, with the sole exception of Turkey, the UK does not recognise the self-declared 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' as an independent state.
We respect the right of the Turkish Cypriot community to choose their representatives in the UN-led settlement process, and we engage with Turkish Cypriot representatives under our non-recognition policy to support the UN-led settlement process. I will meet Mr Erhürman at the next informal UN-led talks to support momentum towards a just and lasting settlement. We followed his recent leadership election and are not aware of any evidence of irregularities.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she plans to meet the newly elected President of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In accordance with the rest of the international community, with the sole exception of Turkey, the UK does not recognise the self-declared 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' as an independent state.
We respect the right of the Turkish Cypriot community to choose their representatives in the UN-led settlement process, and we engage with Turkish Cypriot representatives under our non-recognition policy to support the UN-led settlement process. I will meet Mr Erhürman at the next informal UN-led talks to support momentum towards a just and lasting settlement. We followed his recent leadership election and are not aware of any evidence of irregularities.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What diplomatic steps her Department is taking to promote media freedom globally.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is a longstanding champion of media freedom globally. We co-founded the Media Freedom Coalition, and continue to work with them, and partners to address the deteriorating global media freedom situation. We commend all journalists for their bravery in these unprecedented times.
In Ukraine we are working with partners to support journalists, providing direct support to enable independent journalism to continue including for example security advice and facilitation of international monitoring (including of potential war crimes).
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to promote global media freedom.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We commend all journalists in Ukraine for their bravery in these unprecedented times and condemn the censorship of independent journalists in Russia.
The UK is a longstanding champion of media freedom globally, which is vital to realising the network of liberty. My noble friend, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, led the UK delegation at the annual Global Conference for Media Freedom in Estonia last month.
We co-founded the Media Freedom Coalition, and continue to work with them, and partners to address the deteriorating global media freedom situation.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What diplomatic steps he is taking to help protect the rights and freedoms of journalists throughout the world.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK is committed to the protection of journalists. We have launched a campaign to shine a global spotlight on the subject of media freedom and increase the costs to those who abuse it. This includes liaising with multilateral, bilateral and civil society partners to explore the effectiveness of the protection mechanisms and funds that already exist, and consider where we can best add value.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much the Government plans to provide to Ukraine through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund under each category of expenditure.
Answered by David Lidington
The House will be informed of Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) allocations for 2015/16 in due course, via a Written Ministerial Statement.
This financial year, the CSSF’s precursor, the Conflict Pool, provided £9m in support to Ukraine on a range of programmes which included gifting non-lethal equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, treating wounded Ukrainian servicemen, supporting the Organisation for Security and Co-oporation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission, building strategic communications capacity, as well as providing peace building activities.