I call the shadow Foreign Secretary.

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs if she will make a statement on the intensification of fighting in Sudan and diplomatic efforts to press the warring parties into a ceasefire.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. The war in Sudan has now entered its fourth devastating year. There is no military solution to the conflict, and this path promises only devastation for Sudan. We need an immediate and urgent ceasefire, we need those responsible for countless atrocities to be held to account and we need a pathway to peace. This is a crucial moment for Sudan, and reports of a possible RSF offensive at El Obeid are deeply concerning. Last year, we saw unimaginable horrors unfold in El Fasher, and the world failed the people of El Fasher. We cannot allow that to happen again. Dozens of drone strikes have hit El Obeid over the past two weeks, killing civilians and leading to severe fuel shortages, sharp food price increases and increasing challenges to the water supply. The risk of atrocities and horrific humanitarian consequences for civilians is high. The UK has been clear that the RSF must comply with international law, civilians must be able to leave freely and safely, and all parties must allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access. On 18 June, as reports emerged, the Foreign Secretary immediately called on the RSF to pull back, alongside a joint statement with partners in the coalition for atrocity prevention that urged de-escalation. The UK has also rallied support at the UN Security Council to drive international action to end the war. On 20 June, we worked with partners to raise the alarm over the worsening situation in El Obeid, pressing for an end to the fighting, the protection of civilians and unimpeded humanitarian access. Just this week, we strengthened those calls in a joint statement with the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway. We are urgently engaging with our international partners and pressing those with influence to call on the RSF to pull back and bring all parties to the negotiating table. The Foreign Secretary personally raised this with counterparts in Egypt during her recent visit to Cairo, as well as with partners in the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and the United States. The UK is the third largest humanitarian donor, and we are providing £146 million in aid, while doubling support for local responders to £15 million to ensure lifesaving supplies reach those on the frontline. Now must be the moment for the international community to stand together to bring this devastating conflict to an end. There is no military solution. We need an immediate, urgent humanitarian truce. The UK is working closely with the UN envoy, Pekka Haavisto, the United States and Quad partners to drive a united global effort in pushing the parties into serious talks, demanding accountability for atrocities and clearing, without delay, every barrier to lifesaving aid.

The world’s worst humanitarian crisis is now threatening to sink into even more harrowing depths. The disregard for human life and the violence in El Obeid is shocking, and the major new offensive simply must not happen. The attacks and destruction of civilian infrastructure and supply lines that we have already seen are beyond all our comprehension. Words alone, whether from the UK or the United Nations Security Council, will not stop the fighting. The Minister needs to explain how words are going to turn into action. Will it be made clear that, if there is destruction or obstruction of lifesaving British aid, there will be consequences for the perpetrators? What new measures will the Government bring to go after the leadership of these warring parties and the organisations that are fuelling and funding the violence? This is like no other war, and the brutal and dehumanising nature of this violence and conflict cannot be ignored, so what are the Government doing to end this cycle of endless killing? What has the UK recently contributed to the US efforts to press the warring parties into a ceasefire? Has the UK been contributing to the Sudan Quintet’s civilian dialogue process? What more can the UK do to support evidence collection of the atrocities, and then move the process on to widespread prosecutions? The UK will soon assume the presidency of the financial taskforce that has to look at the illicit funding that is driving this war. What can the Minister say about that process and what the United Kingdom will do? I also expect the Minister to respond to the concerns outlined on Tuesday at the International Development Committee that the British Government allegedly failed to act on intelligence and policy proposals put forward by third parties regarding impending mass atrocities in El Fasher. How does the Minister reconcile that account with the way in which the conflict has been handled by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office since the Government took responsibility in July 2024? For Britain’s national security, we need action to end this war and support a transition to peaceful civilian rule. We do not want to see more destabilisation spanning all the way from the Sahel to the middle east. We cannot have more threats to our security and to regional security in the Red sea, or more Iranian or Russian influence, and we cannot see ungoverned spaces where terrorist groups plot to destabilise and undermine our security and that of our allies.

In relation to additional funding and support, and the ask of the shadow Foreign Secretary on turning words into action, that is what the Government are doing. We are protecting funding for humanitarian support for Sudan. We are additionally putting in money for emergency response rooms in El Obeid. We are actively working at every level to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. I anticipated that the Foreign Secretary would raise the claims made yesterday in the IDC; I am sure that other Members will as well. I have to tell the House that we completely reject those claims. The UK acted swiftly, including on 13 June 2024, when the previous Government were in office. We penned the UN Security Council resolution. We demanded that the RSF halt the siege in the city. As part of further work in November 2024, we attempted a follow-up UN resolution. We have also issued further sanctions across the piece. Of course, there are lessons learned in any response to international conflict, but I have to tell the House that we do not accept the conditions in what was set out yesterday in the IDC. On the wider response, the shadow Foreign Secretary will know that the Foreign Secretary has raised this matter at the highest levels, including when we chaired the Security Council in February. She has worked with partners across the Quad and the United States, and even this Tuesday was raising with the UN Secretary-General the need for further international intervention on a multilateral basis to bring about a peaceful resolution. On conflict resolution and a response to the people who are committing the atrocities, yesterday I was in calls with counterparts in Angola on working to build the international coalition on atrocity prevention and evidence gathering, to ensure that people can be held to account, and that prosecutions can take place for these horrendous crimes. The shadow Foreign Secretary is right: what is happening in Sudan is one of the greatest travesties of our generation. The situation is horrendous, whether it is on sexual violence against women and girls or the sheer scale of civilian killings. The Government will continue to do all that we can to bring the perpetrators to account, to ensure aid enters Sudan, and to stop any conflict becoming more widespread.

The Minister is a good man, and I know that he cares deeply about this subject, but the time for calling on the belligerents and their backers to desist, for urging them to stop, or for raising matters with them, has ended. We did all of those things before El Fasher, and up to 60,000 people were slaughtered. We now have half a million people in El Obeid who are worried that if they do not die of thirst, they will die by drone, violent gang rape or summary execution. Will the Government start naming and shaming the belligerents and their backers, and slap more sanctions on them? Will they ensure that there is a UN Security Council resolution that explicitly calls on the belligerents and their backers, including the UAE, to halt the impending invasion of El Obeid?

My right hon. Friend is a passionate advocate on this issue, and a former Minister for Development and for Africa. As I said in my statement, the Foreign Secretary has raised the matter directly with the UAE and a number of other countries. My right hon. Friend will know that we have issued sanctions in relation to Sudan, but we do not discuss additional sanctions on the Floor of the House. We are putting money in to offer additional support to help the people at El Obeid. We are working at the UN: there have been conversations between the Foreign Secretary and Secretary-General António Guterres as recently as Tuesday, and we have led the work on the UN fact-finding mission on what the RSF is doing. We are leading the work, ensuring that there is joined-up working to bring about a peaceful resolution. However, my right hon. Friend is right that the situation is absolutely horrendous.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

The International Development Committee heard from a war crimes investigator that the UK Government failed to act on repeated warnings of the looming genocidal massacre in El Fasher because their foreign policy had been captured by the United Arab Emirates. He claimed that the FCDO prioritised its economic security and diplomatic relationships with the UAE above preventing the intentional starvation, forced displacement and genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians. The New York Times reported that Sheikh Mansour, Vice President of the UAE and owner of Man City, played a central role in arming the RSF. Given the UAE’s manifold interests in the UK, the public would expect the Government to call that out and act. Will they do so now? Will the Government amend the Independent Football Regulator’s remit to give it power to investigate and sanction football club owners suspected of involvement in human rights abuses? We are warned that El Obeid is facing a similar onslaught imminently, so will the Government finally, in their role as penholder at the UN Security Council, move to take consequential action against the UAE and any state arming belligerents in Sudan?

In relation to the IDC, I am happy to repeat the point: we reject the claims that have been set out. As the penholder, the last Government and this one were at the forefront of the UN resolutions. In fact, in November 2024 this Government pushed for a further resolution that was vetoed by Russia. The Government have been at the forefront of this work for the best part of four years—whether that is the last Government or this one. The Foreign Secretary and her two predecessors ensured that Sudan remained at the forefront of the multilateral UN agenda. In relation to the wider processes around the UAE and other countries, as I have just told the House, the Foreign Secretary raised the matter during her visit to Cairo last week, including with the UAE. We continue to raise the matter in order to bring about a peaceful resolution. That position is not going to change. We will keep leading as penholder in the UN.

The situation in Sudan is outrageous. The atrocities are unbearable to hear about. On the international Development Committee we have heard about the most vile attacks on women and girls, and sexual violence. It must stop; we must do as much as we can as a Government to end it. What steps is the UK taking with its international partners to protect women and girls from the current offensive?

My hon. Friend is right to raise the horrendous levels of sexual violence against women, girls, and indeed boys, across this devastating conflict. Just this week, the UN has published a report on the widespread sexual violence that is taking place, and we will respond to that in due course. In terms of the active work the Government are doing, my hon. Friend will know that the Foreign Secretary has announced an international coalition on tackling violence against women and girls. In Sudan specifically, we have announced a multi-year £20 million programme, starting this year, to support survivors of sexual violence to access psychological and medical support; we are doing work on the border, working with UNICEF, among others, to protect girls who are victims of sexual violence; and we are trying our best to work in-country and support refugees to ensure that they are given support. We are doing more internationally to bring about this international coalition to tackle sexual violence. Sexual violence should not be used as a weapon of war, but it is. We are doing everything we can to stop it.

Trade with the UAE appears to have been the reason for the lack of robust action in the past to hold back the RSF, which murdered 60,000 in El Fasher last November. A softly, softly approach has clearly not worked, and now it is time for the UK, as UN penholder for Sudan, to find its moral compass and a backbone and stand up for what it believes. Will the Government empower their excellent civil servants with an atrocity prevention Act by which they can hold themselves, and indeed Ministers, accountable when their actions fall short of what we as a nation expect not only of ourselves, but of all those who would call themselves our allies?

We work internationally on atrocity prevention, on evidence gathering and working through international coalitions in Sudan, Ukraine and many other countries of conflict. That work has gone on for many, many years across various Governments, regardless of political party. We continue to call out these atrocities on the United Nations Security Council. As I have said, the Foreign Secretary has raised this matter with the UAE in the past week—we are not shying away from our responsibilities in this, and we will keep challenging. As the House knows, we do not discuss or debate sanctions on the Floor of the House, but we do keep them under review. That is the sensible, responsible approach of any Government.

We have heard very serious allegations this week that Foreign Office officials, and allegedly even senior members of this Government, may have been swayed by ties with international partners in determining how the UK acts to de-escalate this conflict and prevent atrocities in Sudan, against the backdrop of what we have seen in El Fasher, which has been found to bear the hallmarks of genocide, and in the light of the impending tragedy in El Obeid. I appreciate that the Minister has firmly rejected some of those allegations, and we must trust his word on that. Given all that, what steps is he taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that, whatever the truth of that matter, the UK is never in a situation where it is beholden to allies who are culpable for such atrocities?

We work constantly on Sudan. Almost every official in the FCDO, regardless of department, has a Sudan focus on the instruction of the Foreign Secretary, who could not be more clear in how she leads this work, including with the Prime Minister, on protecting aid support in-country and providing more support across the wider region. I must repeat that we do reject the allegations that were made yesterday. Our actions on this speak very clearly: we have been at the forefront of trying to find a peaceful resolution for this conflict across the four years—across this Government and the previous Government—whether at a multilateral level or by engaging and working with partners, and we will continue to do so. As I said earlier, I was in conversation with the Angolan Foreign Minister just yesterday, talking about evidence gathering in relation to the atrocities taking place in Sudan. This is an absolute focus of the Foreign Office and its Ministers, and Government Ministers more widely.

It seems that whoever comes into government, the Foreign Office’s weak policy on the UAE persists. I remind the hon. Gentleman that the UAE has incarcerated a British citizen for more than 19 years—illegally, according to the UN. The UAE provides the rebels with significant amounts of arms and weaponry, without which they would never be able to continue this brutal war, with so many dead and wounded as a consequence. Surely it is time for a British Government to stand up and say that enough is enough, and that we are going to sanction all those individuals responsible for decision making in the UAE and in other countries providing arms to the rebels. If we do not do that, all the talk is worthless.

The right hon. Gentleman knows that the diplomatic engagement of the Foreign Office with all foreign partners goes on day in, day out and year in, year out. I do not agree with him that nothing happens; there are plenty of examples across the board in various conflicts taking place where British involvement makes a meaningful difference. He is an experienced former Cabinet member, so he will know, as I have said, that no Government will debate sanctions on the Floor of this House, and nor should they. We will continue to keep them under review and keep challenging and working with colleagues internationally to bring about a peaceful resolution.

This is a most bloody conflict, and the Foreign Secretary was right to say that rape is being used as a weapon of war. What steps is the Minister taking with international partners to ensure that the belligerents and those culpable are brought to justice?

My hon. Friend is right to raise that. It is why we are working internationally on evidence gathering. We must ensure that evidence is not suddenly vanished from the system. I hope that this conflict will end with some form of peaceful resolution. We are working with the coalition to ensure that there is a central system for gathering evidence so that prosecutions can take place through the courts. It is extremely important that the perpetrators are held to account. I thank him for highlighting this matter.

In his statement, the Minister urged the parties to comply with international law, but he will know that many are coming to the view that the UK’s compliance with international law is very often a cosmetic or paper-based exercise. The Srebrenica judgment established that a state breaches its obligations under the genocide convention not by failing to prevent a genocide but by not even trying to do so. The International Development Committee heard the other day that the UK was told but failed to act; the Minister is disputing that account. Can we please have an independent inquiry into whether it is true, so that the House can judge whether this country has complied with its obligations under the genocide convention?

I have a great amount of time for the right hon. Gentleman—we have known each other for a very long time—but I do not accept the suggestion that the Government do not respect international law or human rights conventions. British Governments have taken the long-standing position, over many decades, that it is for the courts to decide whether genocide has taken place. However, that does not mean that we do not act or intervene to undertake our international obligations, as we have always done. We do that in a meaningful way through funding, direct support and international humanitarian aid, and by ensuring that, as penholder in this particular case, we lead in the multilateral system. I do not accept that this Government have not provided support, and as the Minister with responsibility for human rights and the United Nations, I can assure the right hon. Gentleman and the House that we are at the forefront of those conversations. I will never accept that we do not hold up the rules of the international order.

I thank the Minister for his statement on this terrible conflict. Will he tell us more about the impact of this tragedy on countries that neighbour Sudan? How can we help them?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There are significant pressures on near neighbours, particularly Chad. We have offered funding over the past year to bring about more support for refugees travelling into Chad. We continue that dialogue; the Foreign Secretary has visited the region—as have many colleagues—fairly recently and seen at first hand the scale of migration. We keep support for other countries under regular review.

There is a consensus across the House that the horrific occurrences in Sudan are worthy of global attention and action well beyond what has been done so far. We spend a lot of time talking about Gaza in this Chamber, but very little time talking about Sudan, which is a far greater humanitarian crisis. Will the Minister consider the implications for the Christian community in Sudan? It is a small community, but they have been particularly harmed by the conflict, with many churches being demolished and many vulnerable Christians persecuted. Will he take that matter up with the international authorities?

The hon. Member is right to raise that issue. We have an excellent envoy for freedom of religion or belief in my hon. Friend the Member for North Northumberland (David Smith), who leads a lot of this work. I will continue to challenge what is happening to Christians and people of other faith in Sudan and internationally. He is right to highlight that Christians are often targeted specifically because of their faith. That cannot be allowed to continue, and I assure the hon. Gentleman that we will continue to raise it.

The RSF have slaughtered children and used rape as a weapon of war. As we return to our constituencies, we should reflect on how we would act if this were happening in them—to our mothers, our sisters, our partners and our children. The UN Security Council says that there will be no impunity for those committing war crimes. But forgive my scepticism, because people are committing war crimes in Sudan, Gaza and elsewhere with impunity. I ask my hon. Friend the Minister, who is a serious man, what steps the UK Government are taking to make the argument to our allies forcefully and with conviction that we must seriously strengthen the scope and enforcement of international law, so that we can truly say that there is no impunity?

My hon. Friend makes a point that I cannot disagree with. We work internationally every week and every day, I would argue, to lead on this front, both in terms of our humanitarian response and in relation to international law. We have led this work as penholder on the UN Security Council and will continue to challenge all partners in this space to hopefully bring about a peaceful resolution as well as prosecution through the international courts system to ensure that those who have committed those evil crimes will be brought to justice. We will keep doing that work internationally and multilaterally.

Many Members will be aware of just how reluctant the FCDO always is to take action against any country. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran is a very good example—just look at how long that took. I know the Minister personally. I know his character; I know he is a good man. He has heard from parties across the House that something has to change. With the change in leadership coming in the Government, may I ask that he takes a step back from what the mandarins in the FCDO are saying to him and makes representations on behalf of this House to whoever is put into whichever position in the new Government? Will he reflect the comments he has heard, as a Minister listening to this House, about the UAE and the flow of money and arms, and override what often is a theoretical intellectual argument made by the mandarins in the FCDO?

The right hon. Gentleman knows how much I care about this place and the Members who serve in it. I always listen to and take seriously what Members say, regardless of politics or party. The current Prime Minister has led from the front with the Foreign Secretary and the previous Foreign Secretary—the now Deputy Prime Minister—in making sure that Sudan stays on the international agenda. I assure the right hon. Gentleman that as the transition takes place to the new Prime Minister, I will make sure that the views of the House are fed in as part of foreign policy work and more broadly. As Ministers, we should listen to what all Members tell us and ensure that we update the House and are accountable to it—and I hope he knows that I am always happy to do that.

A teacher of Sudanese heritage in my constituency came to see me to tell me about the experience of her family. She said, “They had just enough time to grab their flip-flops and run for their lives. Having left all their property, they are now scattered in multiple countries across the region.” Her concern was that Sudan has never received the publicity or attention that it has deserved, and that that has been at the expense of the civilian population. Can I ask the Minister and the Government to put a proper spotlight on this conflict, and to use our weight and influence to prioritise the protection of the civilian population and the provision of humanitarian relief?

My hon. Friend is right to raise the matter of media scrutiny around this conflict. One of the challenges of this is being able to show that there are more conflicts in the world now than at any point since the second world war, which I find a very harrowing statistic. That is why in February at the UN Security Council the Foreign Secretary chaired a special session on Sudan. It is why she raises it in international speeches and with international partners at summits. It is why we keep Sudan on the agenda wherever the UK is leading. My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the challenge of media scrutiny. I am not sure how much coverage debates in Parliament on Sudan that take place on a Thursday morning will get in the national media. The subject does need more media coverage, and we will continue to keep highlighting it internationally, but it does need scrutiny and challenge. As the Minister with responsibility for media freedom, I am very keen for journalists to do more investigative work in relation to Sudan, and we will keep doing all we can to highlight the atrocities and the scale of devastation taking place of civilians in Sudan.

I respect the Minister, but I regret the gap between his words and the actions of this Government. He said that the world has failed Sudan, but the UK has also failed Sudan. He said that the Government believe that we need those responsible to be held to account, but the Government are not doing that. It is widely known that the United Arab Emirates is arming the RSF. Will the Minister tell the House which UAE leader the Foreign Secretary spoke with and what was said? Will he agree today to suspend arms exports to the UAE? Finally, will he summon the ambassador to insist that the UAE takes every step to arrest the RSF’s approach to El Obeid?

I too have a great deal of respect for the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Foreign Affairs. We have not known each other very long, but I believe we have a good relationship. I do not accept that the UK has failed the people of Sudan. Successive Foreign Secretaries have led the charge internationally on the coalition to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. We continue to raise it at the highest levels and we continue to challenge. On the UAE, I can tell him that the Foreign Secretary spoke to the Foreign Minister. We continue to raise these points internationally, no matter what they may be. As I have said repeatedly, we do not debate sanctions on the Floor of the House—no responsible Government would do that—and we will keep to that.

We have seen three years of unimaginable suffering in Sudan, with 19 million people extremely hungry, millions of children out of school, and thousands of women and girls who have been raped. The world should have been focused on stopping that, but major powers, like the US, have been largely absent and others, from the UAE to Iran and Turkey, have actively supported the conflict by supplying guns and drones. We in the UK must be on the side of peace. Will the Minister say what more he will do to stop that supply of arms and throw our weight behind a ceasefire before we see a repeat of the El Fasher massacre in El Obeid?

My hon. Friend is right to challenge me in this space. We are putting in additional funding to support El Obeid and to make sure that we have early intervention. We have also led the work internationally to call for no additional progress on any conflict in El Obeid. As for the crimes of sexual violence that are taking place and the use of sexual violence in conflict, we are leading part of the international work, including working with US colleagues, to create a system through which evidence can be gathered that can bring about prosecution. On the peace deal and bringing about a ceasefire, the Foreign Secretary is personally leading the charge. She does not shy away from any of those challenges and she continually puts pressure to bring about a peaceful resolution. This is why she has issued the statement, why she is challenging foreign Governments and why the UK is at the forefront of the development funding that has not been cut for the people of Sudan: to try to play our part in bringing about a peaceful resolution.

This brutal conflict has resulted in more than 14 million people being displaced. Around 5 million of those have been displaced over the border, but 9 million are displaced in Sudan itself. Will the Minister set out what practical steps the Government are taking to support those who are displaced internally?

The hon. Gentleman is right to raise that point. We often use UN agencies internally in Sudan, because they are some of the most trusted support mechanisms for supporting peoples displaced inside Sudan. As I mentioned earlier to my hon. Friend the Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney (Nick Smith), on neighbouring countries where refugees are moving to—Chad is a particular point of movement for people—we are offering additional support. We keep the situation under constant review so we can support people who are refugees in-country and those who are moving outside Sudan. I assure the hon. Gentleman that we keep that under constant review to provide more support where we need to.

I thank the Minister for his statement and the level of reassurance he has given us. I also thank the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam), who yesterday introduced me to three men with a connection to Sudan. They were all absolutely distraught by what is happening, and I really felt for them. They asked why we were not discussing the situation more; all of us, not just the Minister, have to ask why that is. The men had two questions. First, can the Minister confirm that we are not exporting weapons to the United Arab Emirates for use in Sudan? Secondly, the Minister has told us that the cut to aid has not affected the women and girls who are fleeing the region into Chad, but are those women and girls getting all the support they need?

The point that my hon. Friend makes, as many Members have, about the international spotlight on Sudan is a correct one, and also applies to our domestic media. We have ringfenced funding for support for women and girls. We are offering more support and working with the international coalition to end violence against women and girls. I can assure him that one of the Foreign Secretary’s six priorities is around women and girls, and Sudan forms a crucial part of that.

I thank the Minister for his answers. Two weeks ago to the day, I held a debate on Sudan in Westminster Hall, as the Minister will know. We highlighted all these issues, and today we are back again. Does the Minister agree that the terrifying escalation of drone strikes and the ethnically targeted violence in El Obeid demand an unyielding response, rather than the global reticence we have seen too often? Will the Minister commit to using the UK position on the UN Security Council to enforce immediate humanitarian corridors, and in particular to ensure that missionaries—there are many out there—and other British foreign nationals in the area are safe and have the support that they need?

The hon. Gentleman has championed the issues of the Sudanese people for a number of years, and I thank him for doing so; I have responded to debates in Westminster Hall in which he has raised, in particular, the persecution of Christians in Sudan. He is quite right to raise the wider point about the UN Security Council. Just this Tuesday, as I mentioned earlier, the Foreign Secretary spoke to the UN Secretary-General. As penholder, we have issued the clarifying statement with Norway, Germany and others, as I mentioned. He is right that we will continue to lead this work in the UN to bring about a peaceful resolution and do all we can to get crucial humanitarian aid to the people of Sudan.

The single most effective action to protect El Obeid civilians and avoid a repeat of El Fasher would be for the UAE to withdraw its clearly evidenced backing for the RSF and demand that civilians are protected. What more can the Minister do to persuade the UAE? If that fails, what can we do on the gold trade and illicit finance, in addition to sanctions, to ensure that anyone involved in arming the conflict does not materially benefit?

As I said, the Foreign Secretary raised this issue with the UAE just this week as well as during her visit to Cairo at the end of last week. My hon. Friend makes a good point about illicit gold flows. We are a leader in tackling the gold flows problem, and have hosted a joint conference between the FCDO and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to launch a public-private partnership with industry to clamp down on illicit flows. We are very much trying to control the problem, and leading this work is extremely important.