Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the merits of coordinating UK sanctions policy with the EU after the UK leaves the EU.

Sanctions are a key foreign policy tool which are most effective when designed and applied alongside international partners to achieve shared foreign policy objectives. To that end, the UK will continue to maintain close cooperation with our international partners on sanctions policy. The Prime Minister set out in her speech to the Munich Security Conference in February 2018, that the UK will look to carry over existing EU sanctions when we leave the EU. In future, it will be in the UK's and the EU's mutual interest to discuss sanctions policy and decide where and how to combine efforts to the greatest effect.