Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether any (a) exemptions and (b) licences have been given by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation for the provision of (i) public relations and (ii) public affairs services to (A) sanctioned individuals and (B0 organisations in each of the last three years.

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) can only issue licences where specific licensing grounds exist within the relevant sanctions regime and where the conditions of those grounds have been met.

Licensing of professional services of this kind may be permissible under one of a number of licensing purposes. Depending on the facts of any particular application, such as: basic needs, extraordinary expenses, prior obligations, or the routine holding and maintenance of frozen funds or economic resources. It would be for the applicant to demonstrate that the criteria of any licensing purpose were met in their particular circumstances.

It should also be noted that since 10 October 2024, the Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) has been responsible for trade sanctions licensing of standalone services prohibited under the UK's trade sanctions, including professional and business services under the Russia sanctions regime covering areas such as: accounting, auditing, engineering, management consulting, and public relations, as well as energy-related, infrastructure, interception, and shipping services across a range of other sanctions regimes.

It is not possible for OFSI to give a breakdown into granular service categories of previously issued licences. Information on the number of licences issued by financial year is available in OFSI’s Annual Review documents, which are published here: OFSI Annual Reviews - GOV.UK