UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Venezuela (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

regulation 2(7)(c) of The Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2024

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

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). .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 person
Conduct
failing to comply with a notice or direction
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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 person 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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

(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). .

What would breach regulation 2(7)(c)?

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 Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2024 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
Status not determined
Made
12 November 2024
In force from
Not determined
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

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

These Regulations are made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (c. 13). They make miscellaneous amendments to most of the existing sanctions regulations. They clarify that the prohibitions on the making available of funds or economic resources to any person for the benefit of a designated person extend to legal persons owned or controlled by that designated person (see, for example, regulation 2(2) and (3); see also regulation 9(2) and (3) for the counter-terrorism context). They amend provisions relating to the notification requirements for licensing, to provide that written notice must be given to the licence applicant when a licence which authorises acts by a particular person is issued, varied, revoked or suspended (see, for example, regulation 2(6)). They make a minor amendment to the duty on relevant firms to report a breach of certain sanctions. This makes clear that the duty is not simply to report a suspected offence but a suspected breach of sanctions or licensing requirements (see, for example, regulation (2)(7)(a)). They require persons to provide annual reporting to the Treasury on funds or economic resources that they know or have reasonable cause to suspect they hold for a designated person (see, for example, regulation 2(7)(b)). They add four types of firm to the list of “relevant firms” who are subject to relevant reporting obligations: high value dealers, art market participants, insolvency practitioners and letting agents (see, for example, regulation 2(9)). They clarify for the purposes of the licensing of financial sanctions’ prohibitions and relevant exceptions for financial sanctions that a designated person includes a person who is owned or controlled by them (see, for example, regulation 2(4) and 2(12)(a)). They make a minor clarification to the power given to public authorities to share information with the Treasury, to link this to the relevant sanctions regulations (see, for example, regulation 2(10). For non-UN designated persons, they add a new exception for the purposes of financial sanctions to allow certain payments a designated person is required to make to certain authorities such as the Financial Conduct Authority and the Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs (see, for example, regulation 2(5)); and an associated reporting obligation (regulation 2(8)). In the case of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/855) (“the Russia Regulations”), they introduce an equivalent exception in relation to the prohibition on processing certain payments in regulation 17A of those Regulations (see regulation 15(7)). For non-UN designated persons, the Regulations also change the scope of the licensing purposes, to enable the Treasury to license a wider class of case related to the implementation of judicial decisions (see regulation 2(12)(b)); and to introduce a bespoke purpose to enable licensing for certain insolvency positions (see regulation 2(12)(c)). The Regulations amend the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/411) to move the existing land prohibitions from Part 4 (Finance) to Part 6 (Trade) (see regulation 3(4) to (6)). The competent enforcement authorities for those prohibitions in that regime are the Department for Business and Trade (civil) and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (criminal). The Regulations make some additional amendments to the Russia Regulations. They clarify for the purposes of the trust services prohibition in regulation 18C of the Russia Regulations that acting as a nominee shareholder where that involves a trust or similar arrangement is to be considered a prohibited trust service (see regulation 15(4)). They make minor amendments to clarify the reporting requirements that apply to the funds or economic resources of persons to whom financial services must not be provided by virtue of regulation 18A of the Russia Regulations (see regulation 15(10)(b)). They create new civil monetary penalty powers for the Treasury in respect of prohibitions in the Russia Regulations relating to land located in non-government controlled Ukrainian territory or in Russia (see regulation 15(15)) The Regulations also amend the Trade, Aircraft and Shipping Sanctions (Civil Enforcement) Regulations 2024 (S.I. 2024/948) to include land prohibitions contained within the Russia Regulations in the definition of “excluded trade sanctions regulations”. These will be enforced by the Treasury. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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 “commits 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