UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Iran (Financial Sanctions) Order 2007

regulation 18(6) of The Iran (European Community Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2007

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

6 For paragraph 2(3) of the Schedule, substitute—

3 A relevant institution must inform the Treasury without delay if it credits

a frozen account in accordance with article 8(1A). 3A A relevant institution which fails to comply with

a requirement in sub-paragraph (1), (2) or (3) is guilty of an offence. .

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a institution
Conduct
failing to comply with a notice or direction
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a institution meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 18(6)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Being served with a notice under the Iran (European Community Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2007 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
1 year

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Revoked
Revoked by
The Iran (European Union Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2010
Revoked on
11 December 2010
Made
1 May 2007
In force from
3 May 2007
Extent
E+W+S+NI

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972, enforce provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 423/2007 of 19th April 2007 (OJ No L 103, 20.4.07 p.1) (“the EC Regulation”) which relate to financial sanctions against persons listed by the Council who are engaged in, directly associated with or providing support for Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or the development of nuclear weapons delivery systems. The measures include the freezing of funds, financial assets and economic resources of such persons and ensuring that any funds, financial assets and economic resources are not made available to them or for their benefit. The persons against whom these financial sanctions are to apply are listed in Annex V of the EC Regulation, as updated from time to time in accordance with Council Common Position 2007/140/CFSP of 27th February 2007 (OJ No L 61, 28.2.07, p.49). The content of the list in Annex V is established by Council Decision 2007/242/EC of 23rd April 2007 (OJ L 106, 24.4.07, p.51). The EC Regulation also imposes financial sanctions in relation to persons listed in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737(2006) dated 23rd December 2006. In the UK, the United Nations financial sanctions are given effect by the Iran (Financial Sanctions) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/281). Regulation 3 of these Regulations provides that the persons listed in Annex V of the EC Regulation, as amended from time to time, or designated in accordance with regulation 4 are designated persons for the purposes of the Regulations. Regulation 4 provides that the Treasury can give directions to designate persons for the purposes of the Regulations if a specified condition is fulfilled in respect of the person. The conditions are that the Treasury have reasonable grounds to suspect that the person is or may be a person listed in Annex V of the EC Regulation; a person acting on behalf of or at the direction of a designated person or a person owned or controlled by a designated person. Regulation 5 makes further provision about the Treasury’s directions, including a requirement for the Treasury to take the steps which they consider appropriate to publicise the direction. This regulation also includes provision about appeals. Regulation 6 prohibits any dealing with funds, financial assets and economic resources of designated persons. The regulation makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Regulation 7 prohibits making funds, financial assets or economic resources available to designated persons. The regulation makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Regulation 9 makes it a criminal offence to circumvent the prohibitions or to facilitate the commission of an offence relating to a prohibition. Regulation 10 provides a licensing procedure to enable, for humanitarian and other purposes, certain acts to be exempted from the prohibitions in regulations 6 and 7. Regulation 15 gives the Treasury power to delegate their functions under the Regulations (except regulation 4). Regulation 16 confirms that the provisions of these Regulations apply to the Crown but, in the event of a contravention, the Crown is not criminally liable. Regulation 18 makes minor amendments to the Iran (Financial Sanctions) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/281), consequential upon the manner in which the EC Regulation is enforced under these Regulations. The Schedule makes provision about information and evidence. A partial regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business may be obtained from the Asset Freezing Unit of the Financial Crime Team, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ and is also available on HM Treasury’s website (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk). A copy of the regulatory impact assessment has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source