New UK Sanctions Office Opens

The UK's Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI), within the Department for Business and Trade, opened last week. This new sanctions body has been established to strengthen the enforcement of trade sanctions and support businesses with compliance..

Complementing HMRC’s trade sanctions enforcement role at the UK border, OTSI has new civil enforcement powers in relation to services as well as movement of goods across third country borders, where there is a UK nexus.

Financial services firms, money services businesses and legal service providers are now required to report suspected breaches of relevant trade sanctions to OTSI.

OTSI will have powers to publish information about sanctions breaches and impose civil monetary penalties.

The new unit is part of the Department for Business and Trade.  OTSI will work with businesses to offer guidance, issue licences and investigate reports of trade sanctions breaches.

Chloe Cina, international sanctions expert and Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) fellow said:

"Investing in a new specialist unit to issue guidance, grant licences, and enforce certain trade sanctions across 21 UK regimes is compelling evidence that the novel measures introduced as part of the UK’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are here to stay.

"The industry will be reassured to see that the most complex restrictions relating to professional services will now be dealt with by OTSI directly from today.

This launch also sees new reporting obligations introduced for financial services firms, money service businesses and legal service providers. They will now be expected to inform OTSI of suspected breaches of certain trade sanctions.

OTSI’s new enforcement powers for trade sanctions complement those HMRC already has. While HMRC remains responsible for the enforcement of trade sanctions on goods that cross the UK border as part of its customs role,

OTSI now has lead enforcement responsibility for sanctioned services leaving the UK, as well as trade in sanctioned goods and services anywhere else in the world where a UK business or person is involved.

To find out more about OTSI, to apply for a services sanctions licence and to report a breach, visit OTSI’s website on www.gov.uk/otsi.