UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee launches call for evidence on parliamentary scrutiny of the UK's sanctions strategy

UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has issued a call for evidence on the UK’s sanctions strategy, focused on how Parliament scrutinises sanctions and whether it should have greater oversight of sanctions policy. The inquiry is examining how any increase in parliamentary involvement could be balanced with the need for expediency, and how to ensure sanctions have clearly defined aims aligned with wider foreign policy goals. The Committee highlights that, prior to the UK leaving the European Union, Parliament played a more formal role in scrutinising autonomous sanctions implemented by the UK, including confidential access to draft EU sanctions measures before adoption and reporting significant changes to the House. Following the UK’s departure from the EU and under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, as amended by the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, Parliament has not received prior information from the Government on new autonomous UK sanctions before they are made public, and most new UK autonomous sanctions regimes are subject to limited post-publication scrutiny mechanisms for delegated legislation. Evidence is invited on the scope and timing of scrutiny, the aspects of sanctions policy most suited to open discussion, risks and mitigants associated with greater scrutiny, and comparisons with oversight models in other countries. Written evidence is due by 9 am on 17 March 2025, with submissions limited to 3,000 words and requested in a malleable format such as MS Word rather than PDFs.