Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to follow the steps taken by the EU and add 19 further names to the UK's Venezuelan sanction list.

Sanctions are a useful tool for furthering our broader Venezuela policy. They help encourage democratic change by keeping pressure on the regime, targeting illicit finance and calling out human rights abuses. The UK introduced its autonomous Venezuela sanctions regime on 1 January 2021 transposing the existing 36 EU Venezuelan sanctions into English law. We will consider the introduction of further designations in support of UK policy but it would not be appropriate to speculate publicly on potential designations.