In April last year, the U.K. parliament suddenly realised that—even with the Great Repeal Bill—if new sanctions were imposed on a country by the U.N., it had no legislation to deal with introducing or complying with such sanctions. A White Paper was hurriedly put together, and in August, the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill was introduced to the House of Commons. On 18 October, the same bill was introduced to the House of Lords. Which is where it still is, having reached the second committee stage by mid-December. The report stage, a further chance to examine the bill and make changes, is scheduled to begin on 15 January this year.
But why doesn’t Britain already have sanctions regulations? The U.K. currently uses European law to implement sanctions, regardless of whether they originated at the U.N. or the EU. The EU currently imposes some 30 sanction regimes, of which about half come from the U.N., for example, restrictions against people, institutions and trade in Russia, North Korea, Syria, Iraq, Iran and other countries. The new law will allow the U.K., for the first time, to impose sanctions on another country by itself. Currently, the U.K. has limited powers to impose some financial sanctions unilaterally, such as through the Terrorist Asset Freezing etc. Act 2010 or the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. This new legislation is needed because, after Brexit, the Great Repeal Bill would only be able to maintain current sanctions.
