Written questions by Thornberry.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2025 to Question 41805 on Freezing of Assets: Russia and with reference to the guidance entitled Financial sanctions guidance for Insolvency Practitioners, published on 18 March 2025, what the value is of assets immobilised in the UK under the prohibited persons provision of the Russia regime.

Coordinating closely with our G7 partners, the UK is contributing a £2.26bn loan to Ukraine through the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) scheme, generated from profits of immobilised Russian sovereign assets held across the UK’s jurisdiction. It is important that any decision to publicise information relating to the ERA scheme is taken on a collective G7 basis.

With reference to the Annual Review of the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation 2023-24, published on 21 March 2025, how much and what proportion of frozen Russian assets are owned by (a) the Russian state central bank and (b) private individuals.

The Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury published in its annual review that £25.03 billion in assets relating to the Russia sanctions regime have been reported as frozen between February 2022 and December 2024. This is an aggregated total of all entities and individuals listed on the Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets, known as Designated Persons. Assets belonging to the Central Bank of Russia, the National Wealth Fund of Russia, or the Ministry of Finance of Russia, known as Prohibited Persons, are not subject to an asset freeze, but have been immobilised as a result of UK sanctions that prohibit the provision of financial services.

Pursuant to the Answer of 12 November 2024 to Question 9057, how much was spent on (a) new furniture and fittings and (b) other refurbishment of Ministerial offices in her Department between 4 July 2022 and 4 July 2024; and on what items this was spent.

The Department spent c.£56.5k on new furniture, fittings, and other refurbishments between 4 July 2022 and 4 July 2024. This expenditure includes costs for new office furniture, the maintenance of antique furniture and fittings.

How many government procurement cards were held by staff within (a) HM Treasury and (b) HMRC at the end of calendar years (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023.

Procurement cards assist with the reduction in procurement bureaucracy, boost efficiency and support the Government’s prompt payment initiative for Small and Medium businesses. Controls are in place that limit purchase types and values in line with individual departmental controls. The number of procurement cards held by HM Treasury staff were(i) 68 at the end of 2022(ii) 68 at the end of 2023 The number of procurement cards held by HMRC Staff were(i) 161 at the end of 2022(ii) 159 at the end of 2023.

What total amount of expenditure was incurred on purchases (a) above £500 and (b) below £500 made on government procurement cards issued by (i) HM Treasury and (ii) HMRC net of any refunded payments in (A) 2022 and (B) 2023.

Procurement cards assist with the reduction in procurement bureaucracy and boost efficiency. Controls are in place that limit purchase types and values in line with individual departmental controls. Departmental expenditure made on government procurement is published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gpc-spend