SANCTIONS LISTS AND WATCHLISTS EXPLAINED · GUIDEUPDATED 2026-09-04
Sanctions Lists and Watchlists Explained
Proscription is criminal law, not sanctions: the UK's 95 banned organisations
The Home Office list of proscribed terrorist organisations: 81 international groups, 14 Northern Ireland groups, and why it freezes nothing.
The single most common error with this list is filing it under sanctions. Proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000 creates criminal offences committed by people — belonging to a proscribed organisation, inviting support for it, arranging a meeting for it, wearing its emblem in public — and it freezes no assets at all. The Home Secretary proscribes an organisation when satisfied it is concerned in terrorism and that proscription is proportionate; the order is laid before Parliament and both Houses must approve it. Asset freezing is a separate machine, run by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through the UK Sanctions List, and the two populations overlap without matching. The Home Office publishes the list as a policy paper on gov.uk, most recently on 7 July 2026, in HTML only: no CSV, no XML, no API and no identifiers beyond the organisation name, its recognised aliases and the month of proscription. On 4 September 2026 it named 95 organisations — 81 international groups, each with its proscription month, from 17 November Revolutionary Organisation to the Wagner Group, and 14 groups linked to Northern Ireland related terrorism, listed as bare names with no dates at all.
What this workflow covers
SCOPE- 95 organisations in the version published 7 July 2026: 81 on the international list and 14 on the Northern Ireland related list.
- Each international entry gives the organisation name, the aliases recognised for it, and the month and year of proscription. There is no reference number, no address and no date-based identifier — the name is the only key.
- Aliases carry legal weight. Section 3(6) lets the Home Secretary specify by order that an alternative name is to be treated as a name of the proscribed organisation, and the list marks those recognised names inline.
- The offences run from section 11 (membership) through section 12 (inviting support, reckless supportive expression, arranging meetings) to section 13 (clothing and articles in public, and publishing images of them). Penalties are asymmetric: up to 14 years and a fine under sections 11 and 12, up to six months and a fine not exceeding £5,000 under section 13.
- Deproscription runs through section 4 — a written application to the Home Secretary, or to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for Northern Ireland groups, decided within 90 days, appealable to the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission and from there to the Court of Appeal.
- Recent additions show the range: Wagner Group in September 2023, Hizb ut-Tahrir in January 2024, The Terrorgram collective in April 2024, and Maniacs Murder Cult, Palestine Action and Russian Imperial Movement in July 2025.
- There is no delta file and no machine-readable feed. The gov.uk page carries a public_updated_at timestamp, so a scheduled fetch of the HTML with a change check on that timestamp is the whole update mechanism.
- Organisation names that read as ordinary phrases in translation generate most of the noise: Soldiers of Egypt, League of Partisans and the Army of the Islamic Caliphate all appear, and several historic Northern Ireland names resemble legitimate cultural associations.
- A hit here is a criminal-law question rather than a payment block: check whether the counterparty is the organisation or merely shares a name, and take legal advice before acting. Our coverage register carries the Home Office proscription list separately from the FCDO sanctions list, because the two answer different questions.
Key statistics
DATA- Proscribed organisations in the version published 7 July 2026
- 95 (81 international, 14 Northern Ireland related)
- Counted from the Home Office accessible version
- Maximum penalty, sections 11 and 12
- 14 years imprisonment and/or a fine
- Home Office, proscribed terrorist groups or organisations
- Statutory deadline for a deproscription decision
- 90 days from receipt of the application
- Home Office, proscribed terrorist groups or organisations
Compliance glossary
TERMS- Proscription
- The Home Secretary's power under the Terrorism Act 2000 to ban an organisation concerned in terrorism, making membership and support of it criminal offences in the UK and overseas.
- Section 3(6) alias order
- An order specifying that an alternative name is to be treated as a name of a proscribed organisation, so the offences apply to the group under that name too.
- POAC
- The Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission, which hears appeals against refusals to deproscribe and applies judicial review principles to the Secretary of State's decision.
- Northern Ireland related terrorism
- The category covering the 14 organisations proscribed in connection with the conflict in Northern Ireland, for which deproscription applications go to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Authoritative references
SOURCES- 01Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations
UK Home Office
- 02
- 03Terrorism Act 2000
The National Archives, legislation.gov.uk
- 04UK Sanctions List
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Frequently asked questions
Q&A- Does proscription freeze an organisation's assets?
- No. Proscription creates criminal offences under the Terrorism Act 2000; it does not impose a financial sanction. Asset freezing is done through the UK Sanctions List published by the FCDO, and many but not all proscribed organisations also appear there. Screening one and calling it the other leaves a gap in both directions.
- How many organisations are proscribed in the UK?
- 95 in the version published on 7 July 2026: 81 international organisations and 14 linked to Northern Ireland related terrorism. The number moves a few times a year, and the Northern Ireland section has been stable for a long time while the international section grows.
- Where do I get the proscribed organisations list as data?
- You do not, in any structured form. The Home Office publishes it as an HTML policy paper on gov.uk with no CSV, XML or API. Teams that need it in a pipeline scrape the accessible version and key on the organisation name, checking the page's own updated timestamp for changes.
- What is an alias order and why does it matter for screening?
- Under section 3(6) the Home Secretary can specify that an alternative name is to be treated as a name of an already proscribed organisation. That makes the alias legally equivalent for the offences, so a screening list built from primary names alone will miss groups operating under a recognised alternative name.
- Can an organisation get itself deproscribed?
- Yes, through section 4. The organisation or anyone affected applies in writing to the Home Secretary, who must decide within 90 days. A refusal can be appealed to the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission, which applies judicial review principles, and either side can seek leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal. Several groups have been deproscribed this way.
- Why would a compliance team screen this list at all?
- Because supporting a proscribed organisation is a criminal offence in the UK, and a customer, charity partner or supplier connected to one creates exposure that a sanctions screen will not surface. It also matters for reputational and correspondent-banking review, where a proscribed affiliation is a finding even when no asset freeze applies.
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