Corporate report

Quarterly report to Parliament: 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020 (‘TAFA 2010’)

Published 19 January 2021

Written Ministerial Statement

Operation of the UK’s Counter-Terrorist Asset Freezing Regime: 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen): Under the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Act 2010 (TAFA 2010), the Treasury is required to prepare a quarterly report regarding its exercise of the powers conferred on it by Part 1 of TAFA 2010. This written statement satisfies that requirement for the period 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020.

This report also covers the UK’s implementation of the UN’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida asset freezing regime (ISIL-AQ), and the operation of the EU’s asset freezing regime under EU Regulation (EC) 2580/2001 concerning external terrorist threats to the EU (also referred to as the CP 931 regime), for the same period (1 July 2020 – 30 September 2020).

Under the ISIL-AQ asset freezing regime, the UN has responsibility for designations and the Treasury, through the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), has responsibility for licensing and compliance with the regime in the UK under the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida (Asset-Freezing) Regulations 2011.

Under EU Regulation 2580/2001, the EU has responsibility for designations and, while the UK was a member of the EU and throughout the Transition Period, OFSI had responsibility for licensing and compliance with the regime in the UK under Part 1 of TAFA 2010.

EU Regulation (2016/1686) was implemented on 22 September 2016. This permits the EU to make autonomous Al-Qaida and ISIL (Da’esh) listings.

UK Sanctions following the end of the Transition Period

Since the Transition Period ended at 11:00pm on 31 December 2020, the UK no longer applies EU sanctions regulations and all sanctions regimes will be implemented through UK regulations. The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (the Sanctions Act) provides the legal framework for the UK to impose, update and lift sanctions autonomously. Information on the three new Counter-Terrorism Sanctions regimes can be found via this link.

These new sanction regimes ensure that the UK implements its international obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1373 and give effect to the UK’s obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 2368.

There will be a final Quarterly Report to Parliament on the UK’s Terrorist Asset Freezing Regime, covering the period 1 October 2020 – 31 December 2020, which will be released in due course.

The following tables set out the key asset-freezing activity in the UK during the quarter.

Frozen funds

	TAFA 2010	EU Reg (EC) 2580/2001	ISIL-AQ regime EU Reg 881/2002	EU Reg 2016/1686
Total funds frozen (GBP equivalent at the end of the quarter)	£9,000	£24,000[footnote 1]:	£75,000	0
Total accounts/payments frozen (at the end of the quarter)	6	3	38	0
Accounts/payments frozen (during the quarter)	0	0	0	0
Accounts/payments unfrozen (during the quarter)	0	0	0	0

New Designations in this Quarter

	TAFA 2010	EU Reg (EC) 2580/2001	ISIL-AQ regime EU Reg 881/2002	EU Reg 2016/1686[footnote 2]
New public designations (during the quarter)	0	0	1	1
New confidential designations[footnote 3] (during the quarter)	0	N/A	N/A	N/A
Total number of confidential designations (at the end of the quarter)	0	N/A	N/A	N/A

Delistings and TAFA Renewals in this Quarter

	TAFA 2010	EU Reg (EC) 2580/2001	ISIL-AQ regime EU Reg 881/2002	EU Reg 2016/1686
Total delistings (during the quarter)	0	1	0[footnote 4]:	0
Total renewals of designations by HMT (during the quarter)	7	N/A	N/A	N/A

Licensing

4 licences were issued under the ISIL-AQ regime during this quarter. Four General licences remained current during this quarter.^{[footnote 4]}

Listings

All persons subject to financial sanctions

Consolidated list of all the individuals, organisations and businesses subject to financial sanctions in the UK.

UN and EU sanctions on the Al-Qaida and ISIL (Da’esh) organisations

Current designations under the UN’s ISIL-AQ regime and EU Regulation 2016/1686.^{[footnote 5]}

Current designations under the UK and EU’s terrorist asset-freezing regime

Current designations under TAFA 2010 and EU Regulation (EC) 2580/2001.

The following descriptors are included in the ‘Other Information’ field of the consolidated list:

• ‘UK listing only’ – listed under TAFA 2010 only
• ‘Both UK and EU listing’ – listed under TAFA 2010 and under the EU’s asset freezing regime 2580/2001
• ‘EU listing only’ – listed under EU’s asset freezing regime. The prohibitions are found in Council Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 with penalties given by TAFA 2010

1. Calculated using exchange rates as of 15/10/2020. ↩

2. The first designation under EU regulation 2016/1686 was made on 26/02/2018. ↩

3. Confidential designations can be made under section 3(2)-(4) and section 7(2)-(4) of TAFA 2010. ↩

4. General licences are published on gov.uk ↩ ↩²

5. Designations under this regulation are identified as “EU listing only” in the ‘The ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida organisations’ section of the consolidated list. ↩