Her Majesty’s Treasury updates terror licensing policy

To be clear, transactions normally prohibited under the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Act of 2010 or under the UN's Al-Qaida sanctions program potentially can be licensed on a case by case basis. Here is the updated licensing statement:

Licensing in terrorism cases

The overall objective of the licensing system in terrorist asset freezing cases – whetherunder the UN AL Qaida asset freezing regime or the Terrorist Asset Freezing Act- is to strikean appropriate balance between minimising the risk of diversion of funds to terrorism andmeeting the human rights of designated persons and other third parties. To this end, theTreasury may grant licences to allow exceptions to the freeze. For those designated underthe UN Al Qaida sanctions regime the Treasury must consult or seek approval from the UNbefore a licence can be issued. Further details on the Treasury’s approach to licensing can befound on our FAQs which can be accessed by clicking on the followinglink: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-sanctions-faqs

In order to licence as proportionately as possible whilst mitigating the risk of terroristfinancing, we may also attach conditions to licences. Licence conditions apply safeguards toensure that funds or economic resources can be made available to designated persons in away that protects against terrorist finance risks. In this way, appropriate conditions facilitatethe granting of licences that it might otherwise not be possible to grant.

The conditions we apply to licences reflect two broad objectives:

- to ensure that designated persons do not have access to large amounts of cash, whichcan be more easily diverted to terrorist activity; and
- to ensure that there is a reasonable audit trail to address terrorist finance risks and thatthe Treasury can monitor compliance with the terms of the licence and identify if anybreaches have occurred that could give rise to national security concerns.