In a written ministerial statement of 10 October 2006, the previous Economic Secretary undertook to report to Parliament on a quarterly basis on the operation of the UK’s asset freezing regime. This is the fourth of these reports and covers the period July-September 20071.
Asset-Freezing Designations
In the quarter July-September 2007, the Treasury made eight domestic designations under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2006.
None of these were persons already designated under earlier orders.
The Terrorism order and the Al-Qaeda and Taliban order provide, where appropriate, for designations to be made confidentially and with restricted circulation of notice. Six persons were designated on this basis in this quarter.
Four persons were designated on the basis of closed source material provided by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
There were no financial sanctions listings at the EU or the UN in relation to terrorism or Al-Qaeda and the Taliban of persons with links to the UK.
A total of 284 separate accounts and approximately £625,0002 of suspected terrorist funds have been frozen in the UK since 2001.
Reviews
The Treasury keeps domestic asset-freezing cases under review. A number of formal reviews have been initiated in this quarter and the review of one case was completed. In this case a decision was taken to delist the designated person.
Litigation
An application under Article 5(4) of the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2006 for an order to set aside a designation was lodged at the High Court on 21 August 2007 by a designated person. Three other applications to set aside have subsequently been received on behalf of designated persons, who have sought to join them to the first application. A directions hearing which will cover all four cases is scheduled for 12th October 2007.
Licensing Policy
In accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1452 (2002), the Treasury operates a licensing system whereby designated persons and others are able to apply to make or receive payments under specific and, if necessary, monitored conditions. In this quarter, the following licences were issued:
11 listed persons were granted legal expenses licences.
13 listed persons were granted basic expenses licences; (2 of which were for benefits payments); and
5 listed persons were granted extraordinary expenses licences.
In addition, the households of four listed persons were granted benefits licences in accordance with the policy set out in the previous Economic Secretary’s statement of 3 July 2006 to Parliament.
1 The detail that can be provided to the House on a quarterly basis is subject to the need to avoid the identification, directly or indirectly, of personal or operationally sensitive information.
2 This figure includes approximately $58,000 of suspected terrorist funds frozen in the UK. This has been converted using current exchange rates. Future fluctuations in the exchange rate may impact on the contribution this sum makes to future totals of suspected terrorist funds frozen.