Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to ensure thermal gap pads produced in the UK and used in the production of military materials utilised by Russia, are not sold or transferred into (a) Russia or (b) third party country manufacturers of arms sold to Russia.

The UK, in coordination with key allies, has introduced several packages of increasingly hard-hitting sanctions that prohibit the supply of a wide range of goods and services, including the supply of components that could be utilised in Russian military equipment. This information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/russia-sanctions-guidance/russia-sanctions-guidance (opens in a new tab).

Our approach to decision-making is to focus on a rigorous forward-looking risk assessment before a licence is issued and to consider whether goods might be used in a way which is inconsistent with the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, including the risk of items being used on contravention of sanctions.