Tackling Economic
Crime
(Thirsk and Malton)
(Con)
4. What steps his Department is taking to tackle economic crime.
(900053)
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury ()
Money obtained through corruption or criminality is not welcome
in the UK. The Government are taking concerted action to combat
that threat by investing £400 million over this spending review
period, with the kleptocracy cell in the National Crime
Agency targeting sanctions evasion and corrupt
Russian assets hidden in the UK. The Government have taken
far-reaching steps to improve corporate transparency, including
through recent and forthcoming primary legislation announced in
the Queen’s Speech last week.
I thank the Minister for that answer. NatWest and HSBC have been
hit with big fines for facilitating money laundering, and Danske
Bank will probably see a fine of £2 billion for £200 billion of
money laundering. This is seen not as a deterrent, but as a cost
of doing business for these big banks. Does he agree that the
only way that we will tackle this is through criminal
prosecutions both at a corporate level and of senior managers?
Does he support the calls to that effect in the economic crime
manifesto by the all-party groups on fair business banking and on
anti-corruption and responsible tax, and will he support such
measures in the economic crime Bill?
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I think he is the
House’s foremost observer of banks’ behaviour, but he also knows
that this is an extremely complex area of law. The Government
have asked the Law Commission to undertake an in-depth review of
laws around corporate criminal liability for economic crime and
to make recommendations. My understanding is that the Law
Commission will make an announcement on this subject imminently,
and we will look at that very carefully.
(Ogmore) (Lab)
One of the key complaints from any of my constituents who are
victims of economic crime is about the inability to reach out to
Action Fraud, and if they do, they get no response. I urge the
Minister—plead with him, in fact—to reform the work of Action
Fraud and perhaps even bring about a new body in any new
legislation to ensure that constituents get some sort of answer
and, importantly, some form of support from the authorities of
the UK state.
This is a criticism that I hear. I am very happy to meet the hon.
Gentleman to discuss it further, examine the experience of his
constituents and look at what we can do constructively to move
things further in the right direction.
(Rochester and Strood)
(Con)
Following clarity from my hon. Friend to UK Finance on how banks
should interpret the money laundering regulations, a number of
banks continue to close existing pooled client accounts of
long-established, reputable boat-broking businesses. That is now
stopping those businesses trading. What further assurance can he
give to banks regarding these low-risk businesses?
I thank my hon. Friend for her question. As she will know from
the letter that I sent her this morning and from our conversation
with industry representatives together a few months ago, this is
quite a challenging issue to resolve. I cannot direct the banks
to open, and keep open, these accounts, but I will continue to
engage with her and with UK Finance to see whether more progress
can be made in the coming weeks.
(Hampstead and Kilburn)
(Lab)
The Government have lost £4.3 billion of taxpayers’ money through
fraudulent covid schemes. Now we learn that a large chunk of that
money is going into the hands of terrorists, organised crime
gangs and drug dealers. Will the Minister reassure me that he is
taking the reports seriously and update the House on the total
number of investigations the Government are undertaking that
relate to covid fraud?
I can absolutely reassure the hon. Lady that the Government take
the issue very seriously. That is why at previous fiscal events
the Chancellor has invested £100 million in a taskforce to deal
with it. When we designed a number of the interventions,
protecting taxpayers was a real consideration. It is also the
case that we needed to act swiftly to assist those businesses and
if we had not made some of those interventions at the time, many
businesses would have gone under. We continue to engage carefully
on the matter.
(Glasgow Central)
(SNP)
We on the SNP Benches welcome the economic crime and corporate
transparency Bill, and given the scale of the problem that the
Tories have presided over, it is long overdue. What discussions
has the Minister had with colleagues in the Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy about making Companies
House an anti-money-laundering supervisor in its own right
finally to lock out the fraudsters, the kleptocrats and their
dirty money from Companies House once and for all?
The hon. Lady is absolutely right to highlight Companies House
reform as a major area that we are working on. The Government
forwarded more than £60 million to start that work, which has now
been accelerated. Alongside the register of overseas entities and
beneficial ownership, the increased transparency of those assets
will be very welcome.
