I was asked why we should not sanction the whole of Putin’s inner circle and the security council. I can give a slightly better answer. On 11 March, the Foreign Secretary sanctioned 386 members of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament. On 10 March, the Government announced that they were sanctioning seven more oligarchs, with a collective net worth of around £15 billion. I will of course update that number in due course.
As I was saying, we will continue to sanction individuals close to Putin. There will be nowhere left to hide for the super-rich linked to Putin’s regime who have used City law firms to threaten the Government. In answer to the questions from both noble Lords, this coming week, the Government will launch a transatlantic task force committed to employing sanctions and other financial enforcement measures on additional Russian officials and elites close to the Russian Government, as well as their families and enablers, to identify and freeze the assets they hold in our jurisdictions. We will also continue to engage with other Governments, work to detect and disrupt the movement of ill-gotten gains, and deny these individuals the ability to hide their assets in jurisdictions across the world. In summary, this is a very fast-moving situation and the numbers are obviously changing, so I will come back on that.
The noble Lord, Lord Collins, rightly asked about enforcement. He will remember from the passage of the then economic crime Bill that we are launching a register of overseas entities’ beneficial ownership of UK property to tackle foreign criminals using UK property to launder money. We are reforming the unexplained wealth orders regime, removing barriers faced by law enforcement and helping to target more corrupt elites, as well as strengthening the Treasury’s ability to take action against financial sanctions breaches. We have also published further details of upcoming legislation, which will include fundamental reform of Companies House—the noble Lord makes a good point —enhanced information-sharing powers and new powers to seize crypto assets, which are designed to clamp down on money laundering and illicit finance. It is a live debate and I urge noble Lords to engage in it.
The Prime Minster has also confirmed that we are setting up a new, dedicated kleptocracy cell in the National Crime Agency to target sanctions evasion and corrupt Russian assets hidden in the UK. Again, this will obviously mean that oligarchs in London have nowhere to hide. These measures are very good news for the UK and our allies. They will enhance our already strong reputation as a good place to do business.
I have two more things to address. First, the EU announced on 2 March that seven Russian banks would be removed from SWIFT on 12 March. The targeted Russian banks are no longer able to use SWIFT, as I explained earlier with the Belarusian banks, to transact with banks domestically and in any country, regardless of whether that country has imposed sanctions on Russia. On 9 March, the European Union announced that the three Belarusian banks would also be removed from the SWIFT network from 20 March. I cannot analyse the scale of the damage that this is inflicting on Russia but I think we have all seen reports of what is happening to the rouble and to stranded Russians overseas who are unable to access credit cards and so on. It would appear that the disruption from this and the other measures that have been taken is fairly material but, if I can get more detailed analysis on the precise impact, I will certainly share it; if the analysis exists, I will do that.
I think the last question I was asked concerned the number of ships. The answer is that 10 have been turned away from British ports since the SI was laid.
I have lost the form of words that I am now supposed to use in concluding, which is mildly embarrassing—please bear with me. I hope I have answered noble Lords’ questions and I commend the regulations to the Committee.