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Financial sanctions

The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (EC(TE)A 2022), which received Royal Assent on 14 March 2022, makes fundamental changes to the financial sanctions regime by:

—lowering the liability threshold for the imposition of a civil monetary penalty for breaching financial sanctions, and

—giving OFSI power to publicly ‘name and shame’ a company or individual it believes, on the balance of probabilities, has breached a financial sanction prohibition or failed to comply with an obligation, even where no fine is imposed

These two provisions came into force on 15 June 2022.

Other sanctions related changes, aimed at streamlining the process of making sanctions regulations, designations, reviews and reports, and information sharing, came into force on the day the EC(TE)A 2022 was passed. See: .

The ongoing Ukraine conflict presents challenges to all businesses in the UK. Staying up to date is critical—see:

—Conflict in Ukraine—UK sanctions tracker

—Conflict in Ukraine news & analysis—tracker

Failure to prevent offence

The Law Commission has consulted on the law regarding corporate criminal liability, including extending the scope of failure to prevent offences to cover fraud and other economic crimes. The consultation closed on 31 August 2021.

It had been anticipated that a new failure to prevent offence might be included in EC(TE)A 2022, but no such offence was in fact included.

Economic crime levy for MLR 2017 regulated firms

On 21 September 2021, HM Treasury announced that anti-money laundering (AML) regulated entities with over £10.2m in UK revenue will be charged an economic crime levy of £10,000 to £250,000 depending on UK revenue. The levy will be applied on an annual basis for each financial year, commencing in the tax year 2022/2023. Payment will be due within six months of the end of the financial year, ie by 30 September, although collectors (HMRC, the FCA and the Gambling Commission) may require earlier payment if this aligns with their existing fee processes.

AML and counter-terrorist financing

The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2022 contain some key changes in relation to:

—Trust and Company Service Providers (re business relationships)

—proliferation financing

—reporting discrepancies, and

—supervision and information-sharing

The No 2 Regulations 2022 come into force on various dates between August 2022 and September 2023. See News Analyses: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2022—key amendments for compliance teams

This is not the end, however, as the government published a forward-looking in June 2022. Alongside this, the government also published two post-implementation reviews to fulfil its statutory obligations; .

European AML package

The European Commission has published a package of , including:

—two draft Regulations (to create a single EU supervisory authority (AMLA) (the AMLA Regulation) and to set out detailed rules and requirements in areas such as client due diligence (the Conduct Regulation))

—a new directive—6MLD

Beneficial ownership register of overseas entities that own UK property

As part of its response to the Ukraine conflict, the government fast-tracked the long-awaited EC(TE)A 2022, which received Royal Assent on 14 March 2022. See: .

EC(TE)A 2022 requires overseas entities to register with, and provide details of their beneficial owners to, UK Companies House before the overseas entity can be registered as the legal owner of UK land. deals with registration of overseas entities.

The () received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. It creates a new framework for recognising qualifications from overseas.

It is intended to improve the transparency around the entry and practice requirements of regulated professions, such as medicine, nursing and teaching.
See: .

The Law Society has recommended that the salary for aspiring solicitors should be raised to £21,024 outside of London and £23,703 within London—for qualifying work experience for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam or during the training contract.

The minimum salary is voluntary good practice. There is no regulatory requirement to pay the recommended amount and no consequences for not doing so.

See: .

The SRA has confirmed that the 2022 practising certificate renewal exercise will run from 1 to 31 October 2022.

See .

Matt Warman MP is to lead a review into how the government can best support a thriving future UK labour market.

See: .

The Women and Equalities Committee has published a call for evidence on the implementation and further development of the Government’s National Disability Strategy

See: .

BEIS is consulting on proposals to reform flexible working regulations. Its consultation was published 23 September 2021.

See: .

The government launched a consultation on ethnicity pay reporting in 2018.

See: .

The government has been engaged in a review of since 2018. It has announced a number of changes will be made to and government guidance.

See Practice Note: How to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement—Future changes to slavery and human trafficking statements.

Following a in 2020, the Environment Act 2021 includes new provisions requiring larger businesses to undertake due diligence to show that they have taken proportionate action to ensure they are not using ‘forest risk commodities’ in their supply chains.

The detail of the proposed requirements will be implemented through secondary legislation and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched a further on the implementation of the due diligence provisions to help design the secondary legislation and accompanying guidance.

See: LNB News 03/12/2021.