Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Sri Lankan counterpart on the imposition of Magnitsky sanctions for people involved in war crimes and human rights abuses during the Sri Lankan civil war.

On 6 July the UK Government established the Global Human Rights ('Magnitsky') sanctions regime by laying regulations in Parliament under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. This sanctions regime will give the UK a powerful new tool to hold to account those involved in serious human rights violations or abuses by stopping them from entering our country, channelling money through UK banks, or profiting from our economy. It is not appropriate to speculate on who may be designated under the sanctions regime in the future. We do not want to reduce the impact of the designations. We will keep all evidence and potential listings under close review.

The UK is a member of the Core Group on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and has long supported Sri Lanka's commitments under UNHRC Resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1 on accountability, reconciliation and justice for all communities following the Sri Lankan civil war. The Foreign Secretary and the Minister for South Asia, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, have both underlined the importance of these commitments in recent engagement with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Dinesh Gunawardena.