Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking with her Cabinet Colleagues to ensure that the UK's sanctions regimes against human rights abusers keep pace with those introduced by our international counterparts.

It is not appropriate to speculate on potential future designations as this would reduce their impact. The UK continues actively to consider a broad range of designations under our human rights sanctions regime globally in order to make best use of these powers, collaborating closely with the EU and allies such as the US, Canada and Australia.