Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to her oral contribution of 28 February 2022, Official Report, column 724, in response to the question from the hon. Member for Rochdale, whether she has determined whether a breach of the sanctions regime took place in respect of a sanctioned jet twice landing at Luton Airport in January; and what steps she plans to take to determine how such a breach occurred in the event that it did.

The UK and our partners continue to put pressure on the Lukashenko regime and those who support it, including through tough sanctions. On 1 March we announced a first tranche of sanctions against Belarusian individuals and organisations in response to the role the country is playing in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including facilitating the invasion from within its borders. These designations are in addition to the wide-ranging measures we have already imposed on Belarus under our Belarus sanctions regime, which include sanctions on President Lukashenko and 117 other individuals and entities as well as trade, financial and aviation sanctions. The UK's Belarus sanctions prohibit the direct or indirect provision of technical assistance to or for the benefit of designated persons, where that assistance relates to any aircraft. HM Revenue and Customs are responsible for enforcing trade sanctions measures on the provision of technical assistance.