Economic Crime and
Corporate Transparency Bill
“A bill will be brought forward to further strengthen powers to
tackle illicit finance, reduce economic crime and help businesses
grow.”
The purpose of the Bill is to:
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● Crack down on the kleptocrats, criminals and
terrorists who abuse our open economy, ensuring we drive out
dirty money from the UK.
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● Ensure these people, including Putin’s cronies, do
not benefit from the UK’s open society.
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● Strengthen the UK's reputation as a place where
legitimate businesses can grow and create jobs.
The main benefits of the Bill would be:
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● Tackling economic crime, including fraud and
money-laundering, by delivering greater protections for
consumers and businesses, boosting the UK’s defences, and
allowing legitimate businesses to thrive.
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● Protecting national security, by making it harder for
kleptocrats, criminals and terrorists to engage in money
laundering, corruption, terrorism-financing, illegal arms
movements and ransomware payments.
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● Supporting enterprise by enabling Companies House to
deliver a better service for over four million UK companies,
maintaining our swift and low-cost routes for company
creation and improving the collection of data to inform
business transactions and lending decisions across the
economy.
The main elements of the Bill are:
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● Broadening the Registrar of Companies’ powers so that
they become a more active gatekeeper over company creation
and custodian of more reliable data, including new powers to
check, remove or decline information submitted to, or already
on, the Company Register.
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● Introducing identity verification for people who
manage, own and control companies and other UK registered
entities. This will improve the accuracy of Companies House
data, to support business decisions and law enforcement
investigations.
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● Providing Companies House with more effective
investigation and enforcement powers and introducing better
cross-checking of data with other public and private sector
bodies.
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● Tackling the abuse of limited partnerships (including
Scottish Limited Partnerships), by strengthening transparency
requirements and enabling them to be properly wound up.
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● Creating powers to more quickly and easily seize and
recover crypto assets, which are the principal medium used
for ransomware. The creation of a civil forfeiture power will
mitigate the risk posed by those who cannot be criminally
prosecuted but use their funds to further criminality.
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● Enabling businesses in the financial sector to share
information more effectively to prevent and detect economic
crime.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply across the UK.
Key facts
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● The social and economic cost to the UK from economic
crime is estimated at £8.4 billion per year. To help tackle
this, the Government recently brought forward the Economic
Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act that included
provision for a new Register of Overseas Entities owning or
buying property in the UK, on which this Bill will build.
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● Government action already taken means more proceeds
of crime are being recovered. Between 2015-16 and 2020-21
just over £1.3 billion was recovered from criminals using
Proceeds of Crime Act powers.
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● Companies House plays a key role in the UK’s strong,
transparent and attractive business environment and
incorporation is among the fastest and cheapest in the world,
with 99 per cent of applications processed within 24 hours.
Companies House already supports law enforcement with about
750 investigations every month, up from fewer than ten a
month six years ago.
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● The Bill will strengthen the accuracy and reliability
of the companies register, which informs many business and
lending decisions. Research shows this is worth £1-3 billion
a year to the UK economy.
