Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the Government's list of sanctions against Belarus officials to all institutions which are assisting the funding of the Belarus regime.

On 29 September, with Canada, the UK implemented sanctions on Alexander?Lukashenko, his son and six other members of the Belarusian senior leadership under the Global Human Rights sanctions regime for serious human rights violations linked to the presidential election in August.?? We welcomed the EU's decision to impose sanctions on other linked officials and will transfer the existing EU Belarus sanctions regime into an autonomous UK sanctions regime at the end of the Transition Period.? We remain concerned by the situation in Belarus and are considering future designations carefully, guided by the evidence and objectives of the sanctions regime. It is not appropriate to speculate on future designations.