On 10 June 2022, there was published on the legislation.gov.uk website, The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (Commencement No. 2 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2022.
The Regulations bring into force three provisions in Chapter 1 of Part 3 of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (the Act), which relate to financial sanctions. These are:
- Section 54 of the Act amends section 146 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (the 2017 Act) so that civil monetary penalties can be applied to persons for breaches of financial sanctions with no requirement for HM Treasury to prove that the person had knowledge or reasonable cause to suspect their activity breached sanctions.
- Section 55 of the Act amends section 147 of the 2017 Act to remove the requirement for a review of a decision by HM Treasury to impose a monetary penalty to be carried out by the Minister personally.
- Section 56 amends section 149 of the 2017 Act to allow HM Treasury to publish notices detailing violations by persons of financial sanctions in cases where HM Treasury have decided not to impose a penalty.
- Regulation 3 is a saving provision that relates to the amendments to section 146 of the 2017 Act. The new law will not apply to breaches of financial sanctions that took place before the coming into force of section 54 of the Act.