To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen the enforcement of export controls (a) in general and (b) to halt the potential transfer of British goods to Russia via third countries.

HMRC is responsible for enforcing export controls on strategic goods and sanctions and investigating potential breaches of those controls. There are extensive trade measures in place and the UK Government monitors the effectiveness of all its sanctions, including those made through the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

We are committed to tackling sanctions circumvention, ensuring that sanctions are robustly enforced; potential breaches are investigated, and appropriate action taken. Departments from across HMG are working together, and with UK companies, to ensure that sanctions are enforced.

Internationally, we are working closely with our US and EU sanctions coordinators to raise circumvention with several countries to highlight these risks and support them to enforce sanctions effectively.

For information, on 22 May 2023, HMRC and DBT issued a Notice to Exporters outlining trade sanctions circumvention - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-to-exporters-202308-russia-sanctions-trade-sanctions-circumvention