Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make a comparative assessment of the criteria used to draw up the (a) UK, (b) US and (c) UN sanctions lists.

There are over 30 sanctions regimes at either EU or UN level. Sanctions regimes are designed to combat a range of issues including: proliferation, terrorism and human rights issues. Criteria for each regime are therefore very different and crafted to meet the specific ends of the sanctions regime. The EU implements all UN sanctions and in doing so will reflect the criteria agreed at UN level. However, where the EU implements its own sanctions regime or goes further than UN sanctions (e.g. on Iran or Syria), the criteria are set by the EU. US sanctions criteria for their own domestic measures vary from regime to regime and may be different from the UN or EU criteria. UK sanctions lists replicate UN / EU lists except in relation to counter-terrorism sanctions where, in addition to implementing UN / EU sanctions, the Treasury can freeze domestically the assets of those believed to have been involved in terrorist related activity, where this is necessary for public protection from terrorism, under the Terrorist Asset-Freezing Act 2010.