Economic sanctions are measured through several connected systems: people and entities designated, assets frozen, licences granted or refused, suspected breaches investigated, and exports controlled. The UK figures below show the scale of implementation, with dates and geography kept explicit. They are UK and Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) measures, not a global total.
Contents
- How large are UK sanctions lists?
- Russia sanctions and frozen assets
- Licensing workload and decisions
- Breach investigations and enforcement
- Coordination and compliance capacity
- Trade restrictions and export controls
How large are UK sanctions lists?
The UK consolidated list expanded materially during the period covered by official annual reviews. At 31 March 2023, it contained 3,883 designated persons subject to an asset freeze across 35 financial-sanctions regimes. The same date saw 957 UN-designated persons subject to an asset freeze across 15 UK financial-sanctions regimes. These counts describe designated persons and regimes in the UK framework, rather than every sanctioned person worldwide. (OFSI Annual Review 2022 to 2023: Strengthening our Sanctions)
OFSI added 800 designated persons to the consolidated list during financial year 2022–23. By 31 March 2023, 653 people were designated under the Russia regime for asset-freeze purposes. One year later, OFSI reported 564 additions during 2023–24, while the consolidated list had reached 4,331 entries across 35 regimes at the end of March 2024. The UK had designated 2,001 individuals and entities under its Russia sanctions regime by March 2024. (OFSI Annual Review 2023 to 2024: Engage, Enhance, Enforce)
At the end of financial year 2024–25, the consolidated list contained 4,733 entries. Russia-related designations accounted for 2,113 entries, or 44.6% of the list, as of 5 April 2025. The year-to-year figures should be read as dated snapshots: entries can be added, amended or removed, so they are not a simple measure of sanctions effectiveness. (OFSI Annual Review 2024 to 2025: Effective Sanctions)
Russia sanctions and frozen assets
Russia-related measures dominate the UK statistics by both designation count and reported frozen-asset value. In 2024–25, UK sanctions reporting recorded £22.5 billion of assets frozen under the Russia regime. The reported amount was double the £10.2 billion recorded in the previous year. OFSI’s in-year reporting placed Russia-linked assets frozen since February 2022 at £28.7 billion as of May 2025. The comparable UK in-year Russia asset-freeze figure reported for 2023–24 was £25.03 billion. (OFSI Annual Review 2024 to 2025: Effective Sanctions)
These are not interchangeable time-series values. OFSI says frozen-asset figures are cumulative values at the time of freezing and can fluctuate with market values, currency movements, ownership changes, designations and licensing. They are not a complete picture of all assets frozen. The annual-review figure and the in-year figure therefore need their reporting context retained rather than combined into an unsupported total.
The UK added 191 Russia-related designations in 2024–25: 74 individuals and 117 entities. Earlier reporting said that, by 31 March 2023, UK sanctions covered more than 90% of Russia’s banking sector. It also reported 130 Russian oligarchs and family members sanctioned by that date, with a combined pre-invasion net worth of about £145 billion. (OFSI Annual Review 2022 to 2023: Strengthening our Sanctions)
The 2023–24 UK review said sanctions had deprived Vladimir Putin’s war machine of more than $400 billion since February 2022. Separately, the multinational REPO Task Force had blocked or frozen more than $58 billion of sanctioned Russian assets by the 2022–23 review. The two figures use different scopes: one is a UK review’s assessment of deprivation and the other is a multinational blocked-or-frozen asset measure. Neither should be treated as a direct estimate of total economic damage. (OFSI Annual Review 2023 to 2024: Engage, Enhance, Enforce; OFSI Annual Review 2022 to 2023: Strengthening our Sanctions)
| Measure | Period or date | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| UK consolidated-list entries | 31 March 2024 | 4,331 |
| UK consolidated-list entries | 5 April 2025 | 4,733 |
| Russia-related share of the list | 5 April 2025 | 2,113 entries; 44.6% |
| UK Russia-regime assets frozen | 2024–25 | £22.5 billion |
| Russia-linked assets frozen since February 2022 | May 2025 | £28.7 billion |
Licensing workload and decisions
Financial sanctions require administrative decisions as well as designations. OFSI took 503 licensing decisions in 2022–23. It issued 28 general licences, compared with 16 in 2021–22, and granted 283 new or amended specific licences. Applicants withdrew 169 licensing applications, while OFSI refused 9 applications. (OFSI Annual Review 2022 to 2023: Strengthening our Sanctions)
The later review shows a larger workload. OFSI took 904 specific licensing decisions in 2024–25, granted 471 new or amended specific licences, and recorded 361 withdrawn cases. It refused 35 specific licence applications and issued 19 general licences. The categories reported for specific Russia-regime licences were 279, followed by 109 for the Libya regime, 43 for Global Anti-Corruption and 19 for counter-terrorism. These categories are counts of licences issued in 2024–25, not counts of designated persons or the value of transactions permitted. (OFSI Annual Review 2024 to 2025: Effective Sanctions)
The comparison illustrates the operational burden without implying that the two reporting years measure identical case mixes.
| OFSI licensing measure | 2022–23 | 2024–25 |
|---|---|---|
| Specific licensing decisions | 503 | 904 |
| New or amended specific licences granted | 283 | 471 |
| Withdrawn applications or cases | 169 | 361 |
| Refused applications | 9 | 35 |
| General licences issued | 28 | 19 |
Breach investigations and enforcement
OFSI recorded 394 suspected breach cases in 2024–25, excluding specialist counter-terrorism cases, and closed 214 suspected breach cases. At April 2025, 240 active financial-sanctions cases were under investigation. Russia-related reports accounted for 329 of the 394 recorded cases. Non-self-reported cases accounted for 151. The figures cover different stages and should not be added together: recorded cases are a flow, closed cases are completed cases, and active cases are an open caseload at a stated date. (OFSI Annual Review 2024 to 2025: Effective Sanctions)
Reports were concentrated in several sectors. Financial-services firms accounted for 142 suspected breach reports in 2024–25, legal-sector firms for 46, and cryptoasset cases for 40. OFSI issued 57 enforcement actions during the year. It imposed two monetary penalties: £15,000 against Integral Concierge Services and £465,000 against Herbert Smith Freehills CIS LLP Moscow. These penalties are outcomes for named cases, not an estimate of the total value of suspected breaches.
Counter-terrorism cases were reported separately in the same review. Law enforcement or HM Treasury actively pursued 16 new counter-terrorism breach cases in 2024–25, while counter-terrorism sanctions breaches generated 32 enforcement actions. The separation from the 394 suspected financial-sanctions cases is important because the latter explicitly excludes specialist counter-terrorism cases. For comparison, OFSI recorded 396 suspected breach cases in 2023–24, again using that review’s reporting framework. (OFSI Annual Review 2023 to 2024: Engage, Enhance, Enforce)
Coordination and compliance capacity
Implementation also depends on communication, staffing and international cooperation. OFSI issued 159 e-alerts, LinkedIn posts and blogs during 2024–25, and undertook more than 30 industry outreach events. Its combined UK sanctions e-alert service had more than 56,000 subscribers by April 2025. These measures describe communication reach, not compliance rates. (OFSI Annual Review 2024 to 2025: Effective Sanctions)
OFSI took part in more than 210 international engagements across 44 jurisdictions in 2024–25 and delivered more than 50 specialist training opportunities. The 2023–24 review reported that OFSI had increased its workforce to 135 staff. Outreach and training counts show institutional activity; they do not by themselves measure whether every regulated firm applied a restriction correctly or whether a sanctioned transaction was prevented. (OFSI Annual Review 2024 to 2025: Effective Sanctions; OFSI Annual Review 2023 to 2024: Engage, Enhance, Enforce)
Trade restrictions and export controls
The trade-restriction side of economic sanctions is visible in the UK’s strategic export-control licensing statistics. During calendar year 2024, the UK recorded 11,415 standard individual export-licence decisions. Of these, 10,815 were issued and 600 were refused. The annual average from 2008 through 2024 was 12,405 standard individual licences issued and 304 refused. The long-run averages provide context, but they cover a broader period and are not a forecast for future years. (Strategic export controls commentary: 1 October to 31 December 2024)
In the fourth quarter of 2024, there were 2,259 standard individual export-licence decisions: 2,113 issued and 146 refused. The median processing time for standard individual export-licence applications was 17 days. Across calendar year 2024, 60% of standard individual applications were completed within 20 working days and 84% within 60 working days. Open individual export-licence applications moved more slowly on the reported measure: 45% were completed within 60 working days. (Strategic export controls commentary: 1 October to 31 December 2024)
| UK export-control measure | Period | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Standard individual licence decisions | Calendar 2024 | 11,415 |
| Standard individual licences issued | Calendar 2024 | 10,815 |
| Standard individual licences refused | Calendar 2024 | 600 |
| Decisions in fourth quarter | October–December 2024 | 2,259 |
| Q4 licences issued | October–December 2024 | 2,113 |
| Q4 licences refused | October–December 2024 | 146 |
| Median standard-licence processing time | Q4 2024 | 17 days |
Export-control licensing statistics cover UK strategic export controls. They are included here as the trade-restriction arm of economic sanctions, but they are not identical to OFSI financial-sanctions licensing. Keeping those systems separate helps prevent a licence decision for a controlled export from being mistaken for a financial-sanctions licence or enforcement case.