Draft Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Tulip Siddiq Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 General Committees

[Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Elliott. The Labour party is completely committed to tackling economic crime. We welcomed the economic crime levy when it was first announced and we will support the regulations today. I want to raise a few questions and concerns with the Minister; they relate to the scope, effectiveness and transparency of the levy.

First, while the increase in funding provided by the levy is welcome, is the Minister confident that it will generate the necessary step change in economic crime enforcement? For example, as Spotlight on Corruption has highlighted, although it is called the economic crime levy, in reality it only covers money laundering. That means that the funds will not be invested in fighting other forms of economic crime such as corruption, fraud and sanctions evasion.

As the Minister may have seen, Transparency International has proposed that the Treasury re-invest the money recovered in the fight against economic crime, such as money seized by the Serious Fraud Office through its deferred prosecution agreement fines, back into enforcement to tackle fraud, corruption and money laundering. What assessment has the Minister made of that recommendation?

On accountability and transparency, the Government have failed to publish any information on what proportion of the funds will be assigned to law enforcement and how the effectiveness of the levy will be measured against enforcement outcomes. I hope the Minister can shed some light on that today. I would also be grateful if he provided clarity on how the Treasury will ensure full accountability of how the levy is used, and how decisions on resource allocation will be made.