UK: The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2020

The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2020 were made yesterday: see here or here (pdf). The Regulations bring into force certain provisions of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 when the transition period ends; they also bring into force, today, section 51 ("Public registers of beneficial ownership of companies registered in British Overseas Territories"). Section 51 requires, amongst other things, that the Secretary of State should, no later than 31 December 2020, prepare a draft Order in Council requiring the government of any British Overseas Territory that has not introduced a publicly accessible register of the beneficial ownership of companies within its jurisdiction to do so. Other provisions are brought into force on IP completion date.

UK: OECD report on the implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention

The OECD has published a report concerning the UK's implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention: see here (pdf). A summary of the report, produced by the OECD Working Group on Bribery, is available here. Whilst noting the strong progress that the UK has made, the report nevertheless highlights areas of concern including: the questions that remain regarding the role of the Serious Fraud Office in foreign bribery cases; and extent to which the UK is doing enough, working with the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, to detect foreign bribery.

UK: Criminal Finances Bill - second reading in the House of Lords

The Criminal Finances Bill was introduced in the House of Commons last year and is now proceeding through the House of Lords. Yesterday the Bill received its second reading: see here. The Bill contains, amongst other things, provisions that will introduce a new corporate offence of the failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. Further background information about this new offence is available here. Draft Government guidance is also available: see here (pdf).

Second reading provided an opportunity for general debate and one topic dominated: the transparency of beneficial ownership information in the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, and the extent to which the Government should through legislation take action to bring about more rapid improvements in the information that is publicly available.