Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to use the new sanctions regime to help prevent attempts to (a) kill and (b) kidnap British residents.

Sanctions are one tool in our foreign policy toolkit. We situate their use within the UK's broader foreign policy objectives. The UK uses sanctions when we judge that they will be effective to achieve our foreign policy goals. It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on future sanctions designations as to do so may reduce their impact.