Tommy Sheppard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tommy Sheppard on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that UK businesses that operate in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are aware of the Overseas Business Risk guidance related to Israel.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Overseas Business Risk (OBR) service covers 106 different countries. This is voluntary guidance to British businesses, available free of charge on GOV.UK. The guidance is regularly reviewed and updated if necessary. The OBR service is routinely promoted as part of officials’ outreach work with businesses and trade promotion agencies and partners. It is the decision of an individual or company whether to operate in settlements in the Occupied Territories, but the British Government would neither encourage nor support such activity.