Part 8: Financial sanctions Section 144: Powers to create offences under section 2(2) ECA 1972: maximum term of imprisonment
This section modifies the application of the 1972 Act, to increase the maximum term of imprisonment for offences relating to financial sanctions, bringing them into line with breaches of the UK domestic and EU terrorist asset freezing regimes.
	Section 2(2) of the 1972 Act confers a regulation-making power for the purposes of implementing EU obligations. Paragraph 1(1)(d) of Schedule 2 to that Act confines the exercise of these powers for the creation of any new criminal offence punishable with imprisonment to a sentence of two years on indictment or three months on summary conviction. Subsection (2) disapplies these limitations in the case of any section 2(2) regulations implementing EU financial sanctions Regulations, while subsection (3) extends these limits for offences relating to EU financial sanctions to a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment on indictment (applying to all of the UK) and, on summary conviction, to a maximum of six months’ imprisonment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and twelve months in Scotland.
	Subsections (4) and (5) enable the regulation-making power in section 2(2) of the 1972 Act to be used to extend the maximum criminal penalties for breaches of EU financial sanctions regimes in respect of criminal offences that have already been created.
	Subsection (6) provides that any extension of the maximum term of imprisonment only applies to offences taking place after these provisions come into force.