Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle money laundering in the UK.

The Government has made significant progress in developing our response to the threat from money laundering. We want to ensure that the full force of government can be used against criminals and kleptocrats who seek to use the UK as a haven for their illicit funds.

As part of the Criminal Finances Act, Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) were introduced on 31 January 2018. UWOs are an important addition to existing investigation powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and compel individuals to explain the sources of their wealth where it is suspected that their lawful income would be insufficient to obtain specified property and they are a non-EEA politically exposed person or suspected of being involved in serious crime. Three UWOs have been applied for, and all granted, since the UWO power came into force in January. The Home Office works with law enforcement agencies to encourage the use of UWOs.

The Act made it easier to seize the funds of criminals and those suspected of financing terrorism from bank accounts, and introduced powers to prevent the laundering of money through works of art, precious metals and stones, and casino chips. The Act also contains powers to deal with the failure to prevent tax evasion.

The Home Office has established a suspicious activity report (SARs) Reform Programme, working with reporters, law enforcement and regulators, to design an effective regime that ensures that there is no safe space to move, use or hide illicit finances.

The Government has also announced the setting up of the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) in the National Crime Agency. The NECC will be hosted in the NCA and will be staffed by partners from across the law enforcement community (including the NCA, Financial Conduct Authority, HMRC, City of London Police and the Serious Fraud Office) and from the Private sector. It will build on the work already done by these organisations to enable economic crime is tackled in a more coordinated way