Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation

(asked on 4th March 2022) - View Source
Questioner
Nick Smith Portrait
Nick Smith
(Labour - Blaenau Gwent)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) potential breaches of sanctions have been investigated and (b) penalties have been issued for non-compliance by the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation since its establishment in 2016.

Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 15th March 2022

The Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) takes some form of compliance action in every suspected instance of non-compliance, and the majority of cases are resolved by enforcement activity short of a penalty. All suspected financial sanctions breaches reported are investigated. OFSI uses the figure of reports of suspected breaches of financial sanctions as our measurement of non-compliance in a given period.

OFSI has published information about the number of breach investigations since 2017 in its Annual Reviews, accessible via GOV.UK. The number of reported suspected financial sanctions breaches over these previous years is as follows:

  • 2017-18: 122
  • 2018-19: 99
  • 2019-20: 140
  • 2020-21: 132

Since its establishment in 2016, OFSI has issued 7 fines for non-compliance, ranging from £5000 to £20,471,809.83 in scale.

Reticulating Splines