Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018

12 Designation of persons by description under a designation power

(1) This section applies to regulations under section 1 which grant a power for an appropriate Minister (“the Minister”) to provide that persons of a specified description are designated persons.

(2) The regulations must contain provision which prohibits the exercise of that power except where conditions A to C are met.

(3) Condition A is that the description of persons specified is such that a reasonable person would know whether that person fell within it.

(4) Condition B is that, at the time the description is specified, it is not practicable for the Minister to identify and designate by name all the persons falling within that description at that time.

(5) Condition C is that the Minister—

(a) has reasonable grounds to suspect—

(i) in a case where the specified description is members of a particular organisation, that that organisation is an involved person, or

(ii) in the case of any other specified description, that any person falling within that description would necessarily be an involved person, and

(b) considers that the designation of persons of the specified description is appropriate, having regard to—

(i) the purpose of the regulations as stated under section 1(3), and

(ii) the likely significant effects of the designation (as they appear to the Minister to be on the basis of the information that the Minister has) on persons of that description.

(6) Subsections (3) to (6) of section 11 apply to regulations which contain provision mentioned in subsection (2) above.

(7) The regulations must, in relation to any case where the Minister provides that persons of a specified description are designated persons, require the information given under the provision made under section 10(3) to include a statement of reasons.

(8) In subsection (7) a “statement of reasons” means a brief statement of the matters that the Minister knows, or has reasonable grounds to suspect, in relation to persons of the specified description which have led the Minister to make the provision designating persons of that description.

(9) The regulations may authorise matters to be excluded from that statement where the Minister considers that they should be excluded—

(a) in the interests of national security or international relations,

(b) for reasons connected with the prevention or detection of serious crime in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, or

(c) in the interests of justice,

(but the regulations may not authorise the Minister to provide no statement of reasons).

(10) In this section “organisation” includes any body, association or combination of persons.