The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has published a new international treaty extending certain provisions of the UK-Swiss Trade Agreement to Liechtenstein. The Additional Agreement, published to Parliament on 7 August 2025 as Treaty Series No.38/2025, establishes a framework for applying specific elements of the existing UK-Swiss trade arrangements to UK-Liechtenstein trade relations. The agreement was concluded between the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, marking an extension of existing bilateral trade provisions to include the principality.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has published an Amending Protocol between the UK and the Republic of Moldova to extend Amending Agreement No.1 to amend the Strategic Partnership, Trade and Cooperation Agreement [CS Moldova No.1/2024]. This treaty was presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State in July 2024. This provides details of the extension of the Duration of Amending Agreement No.1, pro-rating of Tariff Rate Quotas, amendment to the application and duration of a temporary safeguard measure, and details of commencement and duration.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has published the treaty 'UK/Rwanda Agreement for the Provision of an Asylum Partnership to Strengthen Shared International Commitments on the Protection of Refugees and Migrants'. The agreement covers, but is not limited to, the responsibilities of the parties, relocation arrangements, processing of claims, treatment of relocated individuals and financial arrangements. The agreement entered into force on 25 April 2024.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has published the provisional draft agenda for the 15th meeting of the Specialised Committee on Citizens’ Rights established under the Withdrawal Agreement (WA), due to take place on 14 November 2024 in London and by conference call. The current agenda includes presentations by the3million and British in Europe on issues faced by EU citizens in the UK and UK nationals in the EU, and discussions on the Independent Monitoring Authority and European Commission annual reports for 2023 and on the implementation and application of Part Two (Citizens’ Rights) of the WA.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has published a policy paper setting out the UK government’s cross-government approach to enforcing breaches of UK sanctions, including key enforcement principles, the roles of responsible authorities and the potential civil and criminal consequences of non-compliance. The document follows the May 2025 cross-government review of sanctions implementation and enforcement, which concluded that a published enforcement strategy would assist industry in understanding the range of non-compliance and possible enforcement outcomes. It emphasises the importance of strong compliance and explains that effective enforcement is necessary to maintain sanctions as a credible foreign policy and national security instrument.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has published guidance on the current sanctions, prohibitions and designations relating to Syria, explaining how businesses and organisations can utilise licences and exceptions to operate in the country. The guidance is intended for UK businesses involved in investment, trade or other activities in Syria, as well as UK aid organisations engaged in humanitarian and recovery work. It also provides updates and guidance on the sanctions regimes applicable to Syria, relevant terrorism legislation concerning proscribed organisations, and the humanitarian provisions, exemptions and general licences available.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has published guidance explaining the functions and operation of the UK Sanctions List search tool. The tool enables users to identify individuals, entities and specified ships designated under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. The guidance makes it clear that the use of the tool does not remove the obligation to undertake due diligence or limit criminal or civil liability. It explains that the tool searches across multiple data fields using user entered terms and returns exact, partial and, where selected, fuzzy matches. Exact matches are ranked highest and relevance is determined by term frequency and inverse document frequency. When more than one term is entered, each term is searched independently. Partial matching applies only to the final term. Fuzzy search must be activated manually and identifies minor spelling variations according to term length. Users may search for exact phrases using quotation marks, although differing data formats may produce false negatives. Matching terms are highlighted within results. Filters may be applied by regime, date designated, designation source, designation type or sanctions imposed. Users are advised to conduct an unfiltered search first to reduce the risk of missing entries. Blank searches are not permitted, but all entries may be returned by searching ‘UK UN’ or by combining a filter with a corresponding search term. Each search generates a unique URL and results may change as the list is updated.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has released a starter guide to UK sanctions aimed at helping businesses and organisations understand what sanctions are, how they work, and how to comply with them. The guide offers a clear introduction to the UK’s sanctions framework, outlining who must comply, the types of sanctions in place, and how they are applied. It provides detailed insight into how UK sanctions are structured. The guide also stresses the importance of using the UK Sanctions List and the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation’s Consolidated List for screening. FCDO also launched an online service that helps businesses to report a suspected breach of sanctions to the correct government body. Businesses are encouraged to conduct thorough due diligence, including reviewing ownership structures and affiliations, and to consult statutory guidance for each regime to understand the scope and application of specific sanctions.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), together with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) and the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), has published guidance on how to use exceptions and licences to comply with UK sanctions. The guidance explains how to determine whether certain transactions, goods or services are exempt from sanctions through exceptions and how to apply for or rely on licences where required.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has published an international treaty on defence export controls, which was presented to Parliament in September 2025. The agreement, designated as MS No.5/2025 and referenced as CP 1396, forms part of the government's multilateral treaty series and is accompanied by an explanatory memorandum.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has published a joint statement from the UK Department of State and UK FCDO following the second US-UK Strategic Sanctions Dialogue. The meeting took place on 8 May 2024 in London and the UK and US discussed the ‘uses of targeted, coordinated sanctions and export control measures to deter and disrupt malign activity and to defend international norms’. In the statement, the US and UK also reaffirmed their commitment to work together to ensure ‘effectiveness of our sanctions and export control measures’.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has published a joint statement on the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee (WAJC) and Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) Partnership Council meetings on 16 May 2024. The statement, by European Commission Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič and the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, David Cameron, highlights discussions at the two meetings. These include state of play of the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement since the last meeting, citizens’ rights and the Windsor Framework, and implementation of the Framework. Šefčovič and Cameron have noted that ‘intensive work should continue’ for implementation of the Framework, that businesses in Northern Ireland should benefit from UK tariff rate quotas for certain agri-food  products, and have highlighted the association of the UK to Horizon Europe and Copernicus and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on financial services regulatory cooperation in implementing the TCA. Cooperation on new technologies to help the green transition was also discussed as well as efficient energy trading arrangements under the TCA. Other points of discussion included the UK ‘Border Target Operating Model’, strengthened cooperation between the European Centre for Disease Control and the UK Health Security Agency, and continued work on counter-terrorism.