Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) imposing further sanctions on settlers in the West Bank and (b) restricting goods, trade and investment in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

We are deeply concerned by the levels of violence towards settlers in the West Bank and continue to urge the Government of Israel to take action to hold violence to account. On 10 June 2025, together with international partners Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, we announced measures against Israeli government ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. We sanctioned these individuals in their personal capacity as a result of their repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. This followed a previous sanctions announcement related to settler violence on 20 May, demonstrating our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation. It would not be appropriate to speculate about any potential future sanctions designations as to do so could reduce their impact, but we have been clear we keep these issues under close review.

The UK does not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Israeli settlements, as part of Israel. Goods imported from the settlements are therefore not entitled to benefit from trade preferences under the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement. The UK also supports accurate labelling of settlement goods, so as not to mislead the consumer.