Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2016 to Question 29659, how many UK citizens have been prosecuted by the Financial Action Task Force for money laundering abroad since 2010.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK has a robust anti-money laundering regime, and strongly supports the work of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in developing and implementing effective anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing regimes. FATF does not have any law enforcement or prosecutorial role.

The Government established the National Crime Agency in 2013 to lead the law enforcement response to this threat. This has since been augmented with a new International Corruption Unit to provide a single centre of excellence in this field.

The National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing was published on 15 October 2015. This identified the threats and vulnerabilities we face in these areas, and an action plan will be published shortly, setting out the steps that we will take to address them.

The number of people prosecuted, convicted and given a custodial sentence for money laundering offences, in England and Wales, from 2004 to 2014 (the latest data available), can be viewed on the Ministry of Justice website at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014 under “Criminal justice statistics outcomes by offence data tool” by selecting the offence: 38 Money laundering.