On November 21, 2018, the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2018 were made, bringing into force the majority of the sanctions provisions of the Act with effect from November 22, 2018.
The Act's provisions empower the U.K. Government to make sanctions regulations to be imposed, where appropriate, to comply with United Nations obligations or other international obligations, to further the prevention of terrorism, for the purposes of national security or international peace and security, or to further foreign policy objectives. The Act also empowers the U.K. Government to create, amend and update regulations for the detection, investigation and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and for the purposes of implementing standards published by the Financial Action Task Force relating to combating threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
The Act received Royal Assent and came partly into force on May 23, 2018. The remaining Provisions of the Act that will be brought into force at a later date include the provisions related to anti-money laundering.
The Commencement Regulations (SI 2018/1213) are available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1213/pdfs/uksi_20181213_en.pdf and the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 is available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/13/pdfs/ukpga_20180013_en.pdf.
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