Compliance

The UK Sanctions List replaced the OFSI Consolidated List: what changes for visitor screening.

Since 28 January 2026, the UK government publishes its sanctions designations in one place: the UK Sanctions List, maintained by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). If your screening still downloads the OFSI Consolidated List, it has missed every UK designation made since then.

Quick answer. The OFSI Consolidated List of Asset Freeze Targets closed at 9am UK time on 28 January 2026 and is no longer updated. The UK Sanctions List, published by the FCDO on GOV.UK, is now the only source for UK sanctions designations. It covers financial, immigration, trade and transport sanctions, and new designations carry a UK Sanctions List Unique ID instead of an OFSI Group ID. Screening teams should switch the data feed, load name variations and aliases, key records on the Unique ID, re-screen people approved since January, and keep a record of the change.

Reviewed 2026-10-21 against the GOV.UK pages listed under Sources. Not legal advice.

What changed on 28 January 2026

From 9am UK time on Wednesday 28 January 2026, the UK Sanctions List became the only list of sanctions designations published by the UK government. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, closed its Consolidated List of Asset Freeze Targets the same day. The old list and its search tool are still online for reference, but neither is updated.

The two lists were never the same. The OFSI list covered people and entities subject to UK financial sanctions. The UK Sanctions List covers everyone designated under regulations made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, whatever the measure: asset freezes, travel bans, trade or transport sanctions. It also lists specified ships. The new list is broader than the one many screening systems were built around.

Other changes that affect screening:

Identifiers. People designated for financial sanctions since 28 January 2026 have no OFSI Group ID. They only have a UK Sanctions List Unique ID. Historic Group IDs stay valid, for example in licence applications.
Formats. The list is published in seven formats. ODT, ODS, XML and HTML are the original four, with their structure unchanged. TXT, CSV and PDF were added. The file addresses on GOV.UK are now fixed, so a download job can point at the same URL every day.
Search. The UK Sanctions List search tool was upgraded with fuzzy search, ranked results and highlighted matches. The OFSI search tool only covers designations made up to 28 January 2026.
One list stays separate. The list of Russian entities subject to sectoral financial and investment restrictions under Schedule 2 of the Russia regulations is not part of the UK Sanctions List.

Does any of this apply at the front desk?

No UK law requires you to screen visitors at the door. UK sanctions apply to any individual, business or organization acting in the UK, and to UK nationals anywhere in the world. An asset freeze generally prohibits dealing with a designated person's funds or economic resources, and making funds or economic resources available to them or for their benefit. The government's starter guide says businesses have the option to check names against the list, and that sanctions legislation does not prescribe any method of due diligence.

Screening visitors and contractors is a risk-based choice. Sites that make it usually do so because the visit is part of a commercial relationship: a supplier meeting, a contractor who will be paid, a buyer touring the plant. Once you have made that choice, the list you screen against has to be the current one.

The fields that matter for screening

The FCDO's format guide describes every field. These are the ones screening depends on:

Field	What it holds	What to do in screening
Unique ID	The list's identifier for a designation. A person designated under more than one regime may have more than one Unique ID.	Key list records and match history on it. Expect one person under several IDs.
OFSI Group ID	Kept for older financial sanctions entries. Absent for financial sanctions designations made since 28 January 2026.	Don't make it a required field. A missing Group ID is normal.
Name type	Primary name, primary name variation (spelling variations of the primary name) or alias (names substantively different from it).	Screen all three. Variations and aliases are what a primary-name-only check misses.
Name 1 to Name 6	An individual's given names in Name 1 to 5 and surname in Name 6. For an entity or ship, the full name is in Name 6.	Build full names in the right order before matching.
Non-Latin script	The name in its original script, with the script type and language.	Decide if you match on it. Most sign-in forms capture Latin script only.
Designation type	Individual, entity or ship.	Visitor names matter against individuals, company names against entities.
Sanctions imposed	Asset freeze, travel ban and other measures, such as transport sanctions.	Decide whether a travel-ban-only match holds a visit the same way an asset freeze does, and write the rule down.
Date designated, last updated	When the designation was made under that regime, and when any detail last changed.	Use them to find designations made since 28 January 2026 for testing and re-screening.

What screening teams should update

Switch the source. Point your download at the UK Sanctions List on GOV.UK and remove the OFSI feed. CSV and XML are the practical formats for software, and the XML has a published schema. If a vendor supplies your list data, ask them in writing which file they load and since what date.
Check the parser against the format guide. The columns are not the OFSI ones, and a parser that skips rows it can't read will look as if it works. Pick a few designations from the published list and confirm each one is in your system under every name it carries.
Load every name type. Primary names, primary name variations and aliases, each as a name in its own right.
Key on the Unique ID. Store it with every match so a reviewer can find the entry on GOV.UK and see its other names, dates of birth and nationality.
Decide the scope. The list now includes travel bans, trade and transport measures and ships. Write down which designations hold a visit and which are ignored at the door.
Re-screen people already approved. Regular contractors, standing pre-registrations and repeat visitors were cleared against a list that stopped changing in January. Screen them again against the current list.
Test with a real entry. Take a designation dated after 28 January 2026, create a test visitor with that name, and confirm the system holds or refuses it. Remove the test record afterwards.
Record the change. Note the date you switched, the file and URL, who approved it and the test result. Update any policy, procedure, privacy notice or vendor questionnaire that still names the OFSI Consolidated List.
Sign up for UK sanctions email alerts, so someone in your team sees when the list changes.

An example. Say a regular supplier's account manager was designated in March 2026. Your screening still pulls the OFSI file, which stopped updating in January, so her name isn't in it and she clears at the kiosk every month. Switching the feed catches her at the next sign-in. Re-screening upcoming visits catches her before she arrives.

How BeckonDesk handles this

BeckonDesk screens visitor and contractor names and company names against the UK Sanctions List, alongside the OFAC SDN List, the US Consolidated Screening List, the UN Security Council Consolidated List and the EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List. For the UK list it downloads the CSV that the FCDO publishes on GOV.UK and loads every primary name, primary name variation and alias as a name to screen, kept against the designation's Unique ID. Lists are refreshed daily. A copy older than 20 hours is reloaded when the service starts, and a failed download keeps the last good copy.

A kiosk sign-in scoring 80 or more against a list entry is held for an admin to review, and 88 or more is refused. Every check, clear or not, is written to a screening log with the outcome, the score and when each list was last refreshed, and the log exports as CSV. Workspaces can turn on a nightly re-screen of people on site, upcoming pre-registrations and contractors.

What it doesn't do: matching uses names and company names only, not date of birth or nationality, so the reviewer compares those with the list entry. It doesn't screen the separate Russia Schedule 2 list. The details are on the sanctions screening page and in our buyer's guide.

Frequently asked

Is the OFSI Consolidated List still available?

Only for reference. It closed on 28 January 2026 and is no longer updated, so designations made after that date are not on it. The OFSI search tool only covers designations made up to that date.

Who publishes the UK Sanctions List?

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) publishes it on GOV.UK. Since 28 January 2026 it is the only list of UK sanctions designations, covering financial, immigration, trade and transport sanctions.

Do new designations have an OFSI Group ID?

No. Financial sanctions designations made since 28 January 2026 only have a UK Sanctions List Unique ID. Older Group IDs remain valid, but screening systems should key records on the Unique ID.

Sources

The UK Sanctions List (FCDO, GOV.UK; formats and downloads)
Moving to a single list for UK sanctions designations, 28 January 2026 (GOV.UK)
Format guide for the UK Sanctions List (GOV.UK)
Financial sanctions targets: list of all asset freeze targets (withdrawn 28 January 2026, GOV.UK)
Starter guide to UK sanctions (GOV.UK)

Screening on the current UK list.

BeckonDesk screens visitors and contractors against the OFAC SDN List, the US Consolidated Screening List, the UN and EU lists and the UK Sanctions List, and holds close matches for an admin. Included at $79 per location per month.

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