Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps the Government has taken to reduce the incidence of money-laundering in the UK.
Harriett Baldwin
The Government’s Anti-Money Laundering regime has a clear aim: to make the UK financial system a hostile environment for illicit finances, whilst minimising the burden on legitimate businesses and reducing the overall burden of regulation.
In Europe, we worked hard during the negotiation of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive to encourage European partners to match our level of ambition in combatting money laundering. The Directive was formally adopted in June 2015 and it will be transposed into UK law by June 2017. The Government plans to publish a consultation on the changes early next year. The consultation will run for a full 12 weeks. We will consult on areas where the Directive gives us options or discretion on how we transpose its provisions.
Domestically, HM Treasury and Home Office have worked closely together to draw up the UK’s first National Risk Assessment (NRA) of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, which was published on 15 October 2015. The NRA is the next step in ensuring that our anti-money laundering regime is robust, proportionate and responsive to emerging threats. The NRA found that while the UK’s response to money laundering and terrorist financing risks is well developed, more could be done to strengthen the UK’s anti-money laundering regime. The Treasury and Home Office are working together on a comprehensive Action Plan to address these issues, to ensure that the UK continues to lead the global fight against illicit financial flows.
