Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Licence definition

What does Licence mean? A licence is permission, granted by contract or law, to do something that would otherwise be unlawful, without creating a proprietary interest. In practice, lawyers most often see: licences over land (a personal, usually non‑assignable permission—often a contractual licence—to occupy or use property, distinguished in case law from a lease and generally revocable subject to contract and proprietary estoppel); intellectual property licences (permission to use copyright, trade marks or patents on agreed terms); and regulatory licences. Regulatory use varies across the UK and Ireland. In England and Wales, the Legal Services Act 2007 requires an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) to hold...

General and Specific OFSI Licences in UK Financial Sanctions: Grounds, Applications, Scope and Offences

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate Crime expert

Practice notes

The UK’s domestic Sanctions framework is underpinned by the Sanctions and Anti-Money laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA 2018) together with regulations made under it. For further detail, see Practice Notes: The UK sanctions framework under SAMLA 2018 and International sanctions—an introduction.

Licences to disapply financial sanctions prohibitions

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, can issue a licence (written authorisation) to set aside financial sanctions prohibitions for an activity that would otherwise be barred. The authority to grant licences arises within the individual sanctions regimes, so lawyers advising on licences and exemptions must consult the specific sanctions regulations relevant to their matter. Any individual or organisation wishing to undertake conduct restricted by UK financial sanctions (including UN financial sanctions that apply in the UK) may apply for a licence. Under the SAMLA 2018 framework, general licences have become a more common feature of the UK sanctions landscape—see Practice Note: OFSI General Licence tracker. If no general licence is available for the activity a business intends to pursue with a designated person, an application for a specific licence can be submitted to OFSI...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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