The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Wendy Morton):...Let me make
it absolutely clear that Russia is a top national security priority
for the Government. We will introduce new legislation to provide
the security services and law enforcement agencies with the tools
they need to tackle the evolving threat of hostile activity by
foreign states. That Bill will modernise existing offences to deal
more effectively with the espionage threat,...Request free trial
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Affairs ():...Let me make it absolutely clear that Russia
is a top national security priority for the Government. We will
introduce new legislation to provide the security services and law
enforcement agencies with the tools they need to tackle the
evolving threat of hostile activity by foreign states. That Bill
will modernise existing offences to deal more effectively with the
espionage threat, and create new offences to criminalise other
harmful activity conducted by and on behalf of states. We continue
to step up our activity, both domestically and internationally, to
tackle illicit finance entering our country. The National Crime Agency has
increased the number of investigations into corrupt elites, and I
hope that the hon. Lady welcomes that. We are also reviewing all
tier-1 investor visas granted before 5 April 2015...
(Chesterfield) (Lab) [V]: The Minister’s
angry condemnation of the Russian regime is unlikely to cause much
lost sleep in Moscow while the British Government’s actions are so
feeble. Last week, the Foreign Secretary was unable to name a
single element of the Russia report that had been fully
implemented. What we really need today, do we not, Minister, is not
strong words, but the promise of actions to get the Russia report
fully implemented?
: I do not accept what the hon. Gentleman is
saying. We have been very clear. We set out the six sanctions
against individuals and then an entity involved in the poisoning
and attempted murder of Mr Navalny. We have been very clear in our
message to Russia that we want to see action, and we also want to
see it respond to the OPCW demand for a transparent investigation.
In addition, we have been very clear when it comes the ISC report
of last year. On the day that it was published, the UK Government
issued a response, and we have set out the actions that we will
take in terms of introducing new legislation. We have increased the
number of investigations through the National Crime Agency into
corrupt elites and we are reviewing all tier 1 investor visas
granted before 5 April 2015...
(Glasgow
North) (SNP): There are some hon. Members on the Tory
Benches who are openly rejoicing at the prospect of Brexit allowing
deregulation of financial and investment markets. Given the massive
flows of capital between Russian oligarchs and the City of London,
how will the Government ensure that Russian officials responsible
for human rights abuses are not allowed to profit in this way, and
that there will be no diluting of standards and regulations that
would get in the way of applying Magnitsky-style
scandals?
: I assure the hon. Gentleman that we
continue to step up our activity, both domestically and
internationally, to tackle illicit finance and dirty money entering
our country. The National Crime Agency has
increased the number of investigations into corrupt elites, and
under the Criminal Finances Act 2017, we introduced a number of
instruments that are being used to tackle illicit finance,
including unexplained wealth orders.
(Glasgow South) (SNP) [V]: The
Minister said that she is “appalled” by what has happened to Mr
Navalny and described the event as “despicable”. She went on to
pray in aid the United Kingdom’s current G7 presidency as “leading
from the front” on Russia and said that the UK has “galvanised the
international community”. We only have to listen to what Members
have said so far to know that it is not the international community
that the Government need to galvanise—they need to galvanise
themselves. They will not be trembling in Moscow at anything the
Minister, who I like, has had to say this afternoon, and there
certainly will not be any winds of relief in Mr Navalny’s prison
cell from what she has said. I do not want her to speculate; I want
her to do something. I want her to implement the full
recommendations of the ISC report. She owes this House and those
protesting in Russia at the weekend an explanation as to why the
Government flatly refuse to do so.
: The hon. Gentleman quotes my words, so I
will re-quote them: the UK has galvanised the international
community in condemnation of these deplorable detentions. As the G7
president, we issued a G7 Foreign Ministers’ statement on 26
January. When it comes to the issue of the Russia report, as I have
set out very clearly, Russia is a top national security priority
for the Government. We will be introducing new legislation; I have
made that very clear. The National Crime Agency has
increased the number of investigations into corrupt elites, and we
are also reviewing all tier 1 investor visas granted before 5 April
2015.
|
