The Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2024

Amendment of the Afghanistan (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

28.—(1) The Afghanistan (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020(1) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 10 (making funds available for benefit of designated persons), after paragraph (3) insert—

“(3A) The reference in paragraph (1) to making funds available to any person for the benefit of a designated person includes making funds available for the benefit of a person who is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7) by the designated person (and references to designated person in paragraph (4) are to be read accordingly).”.

(3) In regulation 12 (making economic resources available for benefit of designated persons), after paragraph (3) insert—

“(3A) The reference in paragraph (1) to making economic resources available to any person for the benefit of a designated person includes making economic resources available for the benefit of a person who is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7) by the designated person (and references to designated person in paragraph (4) are to be read accordingly).”.

(4)  In regulation 25 (finance: exceptions from prohibitions), after paragraph (8) insert—

“(9) For the purposes of paragraphs (1)(b), (5) and (6) and the definition of “frozen account” in paragraph (7), references to a designated person are to be read as including a person who is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7) by the designated person.

(10) When determining for the purposes of paragraph (5) when a person (“C”) who is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7) by the designated person (“D”) became a designated person, C is to be treated as having become a designated person at the same time as D.”.

(5) In regulation 28(5) (Treasury licences)—

(a) after “Where the Treasury” insert “, on the application of a person (“P”),”;

(b) for “issue, vary, revoke or suspend” substitute “issue”;

(c) after “particular person,” insert “or vary, revoke or suspend that licence,”;

(d) for “that person” substitute “P”.

(6) In regulation 30 (finance: reporting obligations)—

(a) in paragraph (1)(a)(ii), for “committed an offence” substitute “breached a prohibition or failed to comply with an obligation”;

(b) after paragraph (4) insert—

“(4A) Where a person (“P”) knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect, that P holds funds or economic resources owned, held or controlled by a designated person, P must by no later than 30th November in each calendar year provide a report to the Treasury as to the nature and amount or quantity of those funds or economic resources held by P as of 30th September in that calendar year.

(4B) Where a report has been provided further to paragraph (4A) but as of 30th September in the following calendar year P no longer holds funds or economic resources owned, held or controlled by the designated person, P must by no later than 30th November in that calendar year report this to the Treasury.

(4C) For the purposes of paragraphs (4A) and (4B), funds or economic resources are to be treated as owned, held or controlled by a designated person if they are owned, held or controlled by a person who is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7) by the designated person.”;

(c) after paragraph (6) insert—

“(6A) A person commits an offence if that person, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a requirement in paragraph (4A) or (4B).”.

(7) In regulation 31 (“relevant firm”)—

(a) after paragraph (1)(i) insert—

“(j) a high value dealer;

(k) an art market participant;

(l) an insolvency practitioner;

(m) a firm or sole practitioner (“P”) that carries out, or whose employees carry out, letting agency work.”;

(b) after paragraph (3C) insert—

“(3D) In paragraph (1), a “high value dealer” means a firm or sole trader that by way of business trades in goods (including an auctioneer dealing in goods), when the firm or sole trader makes or receives, in respect of any transaction, a payment or payments in cash of at least 10,000 euros in total, whether the transaction is executed in a single operation or in several operations which appear to be linked.

(3E) In paragraph (1), an “art market participant” means, subject to paragraph (3F), a firm or sole practitioner that is registered or required to register with the Commissioners as an art market participant under regulation 56(5) and (6) of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.

(3F) A firm or sole practitioner is not an art market participant for the purposes of paragraph (3E) in relation to the sale or storage of a work of art which is created by, or is attributable to, a member of the firm or the sole practitioner.

(3G) For the purposes of this regulation, “work of art” means anything which, in accordance with section 21(6) to (6B) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (value of imported goods), is a work of art for the purposes of section 21(5)(a) of that Act.

(3H) In paragraph (1), an “insolvency practitioner” means a firm or individual who acts as an insolvency practitioner within the meaning of section 388 of the Insolvency Act 1986 or Article 3 of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.

(3I) In paragraph (1), “letting agency work” means work—

(a) consisting of things done in response to instructions received from—

(i) a person (a “prospective landlord”) seeking to find another person to whom to let land for a term of a month or more, or

(ii) a person (a “prospective tenant”) seeking to find land to rent for a term of a month or more, and

(b) done—

(i) in relation to a prospective landlord, from the point that the prospective landlord instructs P, or

(ii) otherwise in the course of concluding an agreement for the letting of land for a term of a month or more.

(3J) For the purposes of paragraph (3I)—

“land” includes part of a building and part of any other structure;

“letting agency work” does not include the things listed in paragraph (3K) when done by, or by employees of, a firm or sole practitioner if neither the firm or sole practitioner, nor any of their employees, does anything else within paragraph (3I).

(3K) Those things are—

(a) publishing advertisements or disseminating information;

(b) providing a means by which a prospective landlord or a prospective tenant can, in response to an advertisement or dissemination of information, make direct contact with a prospective tenant or a prospective landlord;

(c) providing a means by which a prospective landlord and a prospective tenant can communicate directly with each other;

(d) the provision of legal or notarial services by a barrister, advocate, solicitor or other legal representative communications with whom may be the subject of a claim to professional privilege or, in Scotland, protected from disclosure in legal proceedings on grounds of confidentiality of communications.”;

(c) after paragraph (5)(d) insert—

“(da) in the case of a relevant firm within paragraph (1)(k)—

(i) in the course of trading, or acting as an intermediary in the sale or purchase of, works of art when the value of the transaction, or a series of linked transactions, amounts to 10,000 euros or more, or

(ii) in the course of storing works of art where the value of the works of art so stored for a person amounts to 10,000 euros or more;”.

(8) In regulation 36A (finance: disclosure to the Treasury), in paragraph (1), for “sanctions” substitute “any sanctions regulations contained in these Regulations”.

(9) In Schedule 2, in paragraph 1 (interpretation)—

(a) the existing text becomes sub-paragraph (1);

(b) after sub-paragraph (1) insert—

“(2) For the purposes of this Schedule, references to a designated person are to be read as including a person (“C”) who is owned or controlled directly or indirectly (within the meaning of regulation 7) by the designated person (“P”).

(3) When determining for the purposes of paragraph 6 when C became a designated person, C is to be treated as having become a designated person at the same time as P.”.

(1)

S.I. 2020/948, amended by S.I. 2020/1397, 2022/500, 2022/819, 2023/149, 2024/644.