UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill progresses through House of Lords

The UK’s Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill has reached the report stage of the House of Lords (17 January). The Bill is intended to provide the legal framework for the UK government to make secondary legislation concerning sanctions, money laundering and terrorist financing after Brexit.

At present, the UK imposes non-UN sanctions through EU laws. It will allow the UK to enforce existing sanctions regimes, such as those relating to DPRK, Russia and Daesh (so-called Islamic State), and comply with international obligations. The Bill also proposes enhanced powers to stop funding for terrorists by making it easier to freeze assets and block access to bank accounts. Under existing rules, the UK government must ‘reasonably believe’ that the person is, or has been, involved in terrorism, and that freezing their assets is necessary to protect the public. Under the Bill, the government would only need to have ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect the person or group is, or has been, involved in terrorism before sanctioning them.

In November, the House of Lords Committee on the Constitution published its report on the Bill, which raised a number of constitutional issues, including whether it was appropriate for ministers to have the power, by regulations, to create new forms of sanctions (clause 39). It also highlighted the need for sufficient safeguards and parliamentary scrutiny to make the delegated powers proposed constitutionally acceptable.

The amendment under discussion cover clauses 1-2, 9, 16, 20, 32, 36 and 38-39 of the Bill.

A copy of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill can be found here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2017-2019/0069/18069.pdf