Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what organisations are responsible for monitoring and enforcing anti-money laundering laws.

There are 25 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervisors in the UK. These include the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), HM Revenue and Customs, the Gambling Commission and the 22 accountancy and legal professional bodies listed below:

1. Association of Accounting Technicians
2. Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
3. Association of International Accountants
4. Association of Taxation Technicians
5. Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
6. Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
7. Chartered Institute of Taxation
8. Council for Licensed Conveyancers
9. Faculty of Advocates
10. Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury
11. General Council of the Bar
12. General Council of the Bar of Northern Ireland
13. Insolvency Practitioners Association
14. Institute of Certified Bookkeepers
15. Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
16. Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland
17. Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
18. Institute of Financial Accountants
19. International Association of Bookkeepers
20. Law Society
21. Law Society of Northern Ireland
22. Law Society of Scotland

These supervisors monitor and enforce compliance with AML legislation. This complements the work of law enforcement agencies, including the National Crime Agency, the Serious Fraud Office and local police forces.

The government has reviewed the supervisory regime and is implementing reforms to strengthen it. These include creating a new team – the Office for Professional Body AML Supervision (OPBAS) – within the FCA to help, and ensure, professional bodies provide consistently high standards of supervision. OPBAS will also work across the regime, to facilitate high standards amongst statutory supervisors and strengthen supervisors’ collaboration with law enforcement.

Law enforcement agencies, the FCA, HM Revenue and Customs and the Gambling Commission are subject to the Freedom of Information Act whilst the 22 professional bodies named above are not. The government supports greater transparency to help build public confidence in our regime, and the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations require that all AML supervisors, including the 22 professional bodies, provide information to inform the Treasury’s Annual Supervision Report.