Persecuted Christians abroad will have their protection bolstered by the British government, following a landmark pledge to implement in full all the recommendations of the Truro report.

The announcement was made last week during a foreign affairs debate in the House of Lords, by Baroness Goldie, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence.

The report by the Bishop of Truro said that the UK government should “name the phenomenon of Christian discrimination and persecution and undertake work to identify its particular character alongside similar definitions for other religions”. Recommendations included rolling out mandatory training to help staff at home and abroad better identify persecution in all its forms as well as adopting a definition of anti-Christian discrimination and persecution, similar to those applied to Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Baroness Goldie also revealed that the government will also “show global leadership” by imposing Magnitsky-style sanctions on nations which violate human rights. Such sanctions target individual perpetrators of human rights abuse in the offending countries.