What changed when the OFSI consolidated list closed

On 28 January 2026 the OFSI consolidated list closed. Since then the UK Sanctions List is the single UK source of designations. For a letting agent this is a small change with an outsized failure mode: nothing about your obligations moved, but any process still pointed at the old file has quietly stopped screening against current data — and it will keep returning confident, clean-looking results while it does.

Last reviewed August 2026.

The change, precisely

For years the UK had two publications a screening process could reasonably read. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office publishes the UK Sanctions List, naming every person, entity and ship designated under UK sanctions regulations along with the regime each designation sits under. Alongside it, OFSI published a consolidated list of financial sanctions targets, in a shape that was easy to consume.

Having two files meant two publication timings and two sets of quirks for the same underlying designations. From 28 January 2026 there is one: the UK Sanctions List. The consolidated list is retired, and a retired file does not get corrections, additions or removals.

What did not change

Four things, and it is worth being blunt about them because "OFSI closed" is a misreading that spreads fast:

• OFSI is still there. It still administers financial sanctions, still issues and varies licences, still publishes guidance, and is still where you report a suspected designated person. See reporting a sanctions match to OFSI.
• The designations did not change. This was a change of publication, not an amnesty and not a new tranche. A person designated on 27 January 2026 was still designated on 29 January 2026.
• The prohibition did not change. You still must not make funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to a designated person.
• The letting agent duty did not change. Since 14 May 2025 you must screen all landlords, tenants and guarantors, at any rent level, and report suspected designated persons to OFSI. The whole picture is in UK sanctions checks for letting agents.

What it broke

Anything that consumed the consolidated list as a file rather than the UK Sanctions List as a source. In lettings, that tends to be one of four things:

1. A downloaded spreadsheet kept in a shared folder and searched by hand. This is the worst case: it was already a stale snapshot, and now it is a permanently stale one.
2. A scheduled download in a script or integration that points at the old URL. Depending on how the endpoint behaves, this either fails silently or keeps serving the last frozen edition.
3. A supplier or referencing product that never named its source. If nobody can tell you which list edition sits behind a result, you cannot tell whether it moved.
4. A written procedure that instructs staff to "check the OFSI consolidated list". Anyone following it correctly is now following it to the wrong place.

The common thread is that none of these fail loudly. A screening process reading a frozen file returns "no match" quickly and cheerfully, which is exactly what makes it dangerous evidence: the file is dated, and the date is on your side of the argument.

How to check your own process in ten minutes

Work backwards from a result rather than forwards from a policy.

1. Take a screening you ran recently and ask what data it was compared against.
2. Ask when that data was last refreshed, and where it came from.
3. If the answer names the OFSI consolidated list, or gives a date before 28 January 2026, you have found the problem.
4. If the answer is "the supplier's database", ask the supplier to state, for one specific check, which edition of each list was used and when it was ingested. A screening tool that cannot answer that cannot support your evidence either.
5. Fix the written procedure at the same time as the data source. Staff follow the procedure.

What good evidence looks like after the change

A defensible record names its sources per check, not per policy document: this subject, screened on this date and time, against the UK Sanctions List as published on that date, the US OFAC SDN list of that edition and the EU consolidated list of that edition, with this outcome and this reviewer. That level of specificity has always been better practice. What 28 January 2026 demonstrated is that it is also the only way to notice, from the file itself, when a source has stopped moving.

If you only take one action away from this: find the oldest thing in your screening process, and check whether it still updates.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly closed on 28 January 2026?

The OFSI consolidated list of financial sanctions targets. Since that date the UK Sanctions List is the single UK source of designations. OFSI itself did not close: it still administers financial sanctions, still handles licensing, and is still where you report a suspected designated person.

Do I need to re-screen tenants I cleared before the change?

You do not need to redo a screening because the publication changed, because the designations did not change with it. You do need current screening for anyone in a live tenancy, which is a different point: a result is only as current as the list edition behind it, so subjects should be re-screened whenever a list is republished.

How do I tell whether my screening is still reading the retired file?

Ask what source your process reads and when that source last changed. If a spreadsheet, download script or supplier report is dated before 28 January 2026, or names the OFSI consolidated list as its source, it is reading a file that is no longer updated. A screening tool should be able to name the edition of each list behind any individual result.

Does the change alter who a letting agent has to screen?

No. Since 14 May 2025 UK letting agents must screen all landlords, tenants and guarantors at any rent level, and that duty is unchanged. What changed on 28 January 2026 is where the authoritative list of designations comes from.

SafeLet screens against the UK Sanctions List, the US OFAC SDN list and the EU consolidated list. It is a screening aid, not legal advice, and it does not cover politically exposed persons or adverse media. Every possible match requires human review, and suspected designated persons must be reported to OFSI.