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STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS


2005 No. 3432

UNITED NATIONS

The Lebanon and Syria (United Nations Measures) Order 2005

  Made 14th December 2005 
  Laid before Parliament 15th December 2005 
  Coming into force 16th December 2005 

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 14th day of December 2005

Present,

The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council

Under Article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations, the Security Council of the United Nations has, by resolution 1636(2005) adopted on 31st October 2005, called upon Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and all other States to apply certain measures to give effect to decisions of that Council in relation to Lebanon and Syria.

     Her Majesty, in exercise of the powers conferred on Her by section 1 of the United Nations Act 1946[1], is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is ordered as follows:

Citation, commencement and extent
     1. —(1) This Order may be cited as the Lebanon and Syria (United Nations Measures) Order 2005 and shall come into force on 16th December 2005.

    (2) This Order shall extend to the United Kingdom.

    (3) An offence may be committed under article 4, 5 or 7 by any person in the United Kingdom or by any person elsewhere who is—

Interpretation
    
2. —(1) In this Order—

    (2) The definition of "relevant institution" in paragraph (1) must be read with—

Publicly available list of designated persons
     3. The Treasury must—

Freezing funds and economic resources
    
4. —(1) A person (including the designated person) must not deal with funds or economic resources owned, held or controlled by a designated person unless he does so under the authority of a licence granted under article 9.

    (2) A person who contravenes the prohibition in paragraph (1) is guilty of an offence.

    (3) In proceedings for an offence under this article, it is a defence for a person to show that he did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect that he was dealing with funds or economic resources owned, held or controlled by a designated person.

    (4) In this article, "to deal with" means—

Making funds and economic resources available
    
5. —(1) A person must not make funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of a designated person unless he does so under the authority of a licence granted under article 9.

    (2) A person who contravenes the prohibition in paragraph (1) is guilty of an offence.

    (3) In proceedings for an offence under this article, it is a defence for a person to show that he did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect that he was making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of a designated person.

Exceptions
    
6. —(1) A person is not guilty of an offence under article 4 or 5 if he credits a frozen account with interest or other earnings on the account.

    (2) A relevant institution is not guilty of an offence under article 4 or 5 if the institution credits a frozen account with funds transferred by a third party, provided that the institution informs the Treasury without delay.

    (3) For the avoidance of doubt, article 4 applies to any funds credited to a frozen account in accordance with this article.

    (4) In this article—

Circumventing prohibitions etc
    
7. A person is guilty of an offence if he participates, knowingly and intentionally, in activities the object or effect of which is, directly or indirectly, to—

Acting on behalf of a designated person etc
    
8. —(1) Where the condition in paragraph (2) is satisfied, the Treasury may direct that articles 4 to 7 are to apply in respect of a person identified in the direction as if he were a designated person.

    (2) The condition in this paragraph is that the Treasury have reasonable grounds for suspecting that the person identified in the direction is or may be—

    (3) A direction under paragraph (1) has effect—

    (4) The Treasury may revoke a direction at any time.

    (5) The Treasury, where they issue or revoke a direction, must—

    (6) The High Court or, in Scotland, the Court of Session may set aside a direction on the application of—

    (7) A person who makes an application under paragraph (6) must give a copy of the application and any witness statement or affidavit in support to the Treasury not later than seven days before the date fixed for the hearing of the application.

Licences
    
9. —(1) The Treasury may grant a licence to exempt acts specified in the licence from the prohibition in article 4(1) or 5(1).

    (2) A licence may relate to—

    (3) A licence may be—

    (4) The Treasury may vary or revoke a licence at any time.

    (5) The Treasury, where they grant, vary or revoke a licence, must—

    (6) Any person who, for the purpose of obtaining a licence, knowingly or recklessly makes any statement or furnishes any document or information which is false in a material particular is guilty of an offence.

    (7) Any person who has done any act under the authority of a licence and who fails to comply with any conditions attaching to that licence is guilty of an offence.

Evidence and information
    
10. The Schedule (which contains further provisions about evidence and information) has effect.

Penalties
    
11. —(1) A person guilty of an offence under article 4, 5 or 7 is liable—

    (2) A person guilty of an offence under article 9(6) or (7) or paragraph 4(b) or (d) of the Schedule is liable—

    (3) A person guilty of an offence under paragraph 2(3) or 4(a) or (c) of the Schedule is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.

    (4) If an offence under this Order committed by a body corporate is shown—

the officer as well as the body corporate is guilty of the offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Proceedings
    
12. —(1) Proceedings against any person for an offence may be taken before the appropriate court in the United Kingdom having jurisdiction in the place where that person is for the time being.

    (2) In England and Wales, summary proceedings for an offence may be tried by a magistrates' court if any information is laid—

    (3) In Scotland—

    (4) In Northern Ireland, summary proceedings for an offence may be instituted—

    (5) For the purposes of this article—

    (6) In Scotland, where a constable reasonably believes that a person has committed or is committing an offence, he may arrest that person without a warrant.

    (7) In Northern Ireland, article 26 of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989[5] applies to an offence which is not an arrestable offence by virtue of the term of imprisonment for which a person may be sentenced in respect of it, as if it were mentioned in paragraph (2) of that article.

    (8) No proceedings for an offence, other than for a summary offence, may be instituted in England, Wales or Northern Ireland except with the consent of the Treasury or the Attorney-General or, as the case may be, the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland.

    (9) Irrespective of whether such consent has been given, paragraph (8) does not prevent—

    (10) In this article, "offence" means an offence under this Order.

Notices
     13. —(1) This article has effect in relation to any notice to be given to a person by the Treasury under article 8(5)(a) or 9(5)(a).

    (2) Any such notice may be given—

    (3) Where the Treasury do not have an address in the United Kingdom for the person, they must make arrangements for the notice to be given to him at the first available opportunity.

Functions of the Treasury
    
14. —(1) The Treasury may, to such extent and subject to such restrictions and conditions as they may think proper, delegate or authorise the delegation of any of their functions under this Order to any person or class or description of persons.

    (2) References in this Order to the Treasury are to be construed accordingly.

Postponement etc of the operation of the Security Council Resolution
    
15. —(1) If the Security Council of the United Nations takes any decision which has the effect of postponing, suspending or cancelling the operation of the Security Council Resolution, in whole or in part, this Order shall cease to have effect or its operation shall be postponed or suspended, in whole or in part as the case may be, in accordance with that decision.

    (2) The Secretary of State must publish particulars of the decision in a notice in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes.


A.K Galloway
Clerk of the Privy Council


SCHEDULE
Article 10


Evidence and Information


     1. The Treasury must take such steps as they consider appropriate to cooperate with any international investigation relating to the funds, economic resources or financial transactions of—

     2. —(1) A relevant institution must as soon as practicable inform the Treasury if it knows or suspects that a relevant person—

    (2) A relevant institution, where it informs the Treasury under sub-paragraph (1), must state—

    (3) A relevant institution that fails to comply with a requirement in paragraph (1) or (2) is guilty of an offence.

    (4) In this article, "relevant person" means—

     3. —(1) The Treasury may request any person in or resident in the United Kingdom to give to them any information or to produce to them any document in his possession or control which they may require for the purpose of—

    (2) This includes power to—

    (3) Any person to whom a request is made must comply with it within such time and in such manner as may be specified in the request.

    (4) Nothing in this paragraph shall be taken to require any person who has acted as counsel or solicitor for any person to give or produce any privileged information or document in his possession in that capacity.

     4. A person is guilty of an offence if he—

     5. Where a person is convicted of an offence under paragraph 4(a), the court may make an order requiring him, within such period as may be specified in the order, to give the requested information or to produce the requested document.

     6. —(1) The Treasury may only disclose any information given or document produced under this Schedule (including any copy or extract made of any such document)—

    (2) In this paragraph, "in his own right" means not merely in the capacity as a servant or agent of another person.

     7. An action done under this Schedule is not to be treated as a breach of any restriction imposed by statute or otherwise.



EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)


This Order, made under section 1 of the United Nations Act 1946, gives effect in the United Kingdom to Resolution 1636(2005) adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations on 31st October 2005.

The Security Council has decided that all states are to take certain measures against individuals suspected of an involvement in the terrorist bombing in Beirut, Lebanon on 14th February 2005.

A Committee of the Security Council, established under the Security Council Resolution, will register the details of the individuals to which the measures are to apply. The measures include the freezing of funds, financial assets and economic resources of such individuals and ensuring that any funds, financial assets and economic resources are not made available to them.

Article 3 of this Order requires the Treasury to maintain a list of individuals registered by the Committee of the Security Council ("designated persons") and to make the list publicly available.

Article 4 prohibits any dealing with funds, financial assets and economic resources of designated persons, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition.

Article 5 prohibits making funds, financial assets and economic resources available to designated persons, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition.

Article 7 makes it a criminal offence to circumvent the prohibitions or to facilitate the commission of an offence relating to a prohibition.

Article 8 gives the Treasury power to direct that a person suspected of being owned or controlled by a designated person or of acting on behalf of or at the direction of a designated person is to be treated for the purposes of the prohibitions and offences as if he were a designated person. It also creates an appeal process in respect of any such direction.

Article 9 provides a licensing procedure to enable, for humanitarian purposes, certain acts to be exempted from the prohibitions.

The Schedule makes provisions about information and evidence.

A list of designated persons and any persons who are the subject of a direction made under article 8 will be made available on the Internet at: www.bankofengland.co.uk.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared for this instrument, as it has no impact on the cost of business.


Notes:

[1] 1946 c.45.back

[2] 2000 c.8.back

[3] As amended by S.I. 2000/2952 and S.I. 2003/1473.back

[4] 1995 c.46.back

[5] S.I. 1989/1341 (N.I. 12), to which there are amendments not relevant to this Order.back



ISBN 0 11 073802 0


 © Crown copyright 2005

Prepared 20 December 2005


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URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/legis/num_reg/2005/20053432.html