Crime: Money-laundering and Terrorist Finance

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead)
My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Crime Reduction (Alan Campbell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I have placed in the Library of the House the second annual report to Home Office and HM Treasury Ministers on the suspicious activity reporting (SAR) regime to combat money-laundering and terrorist financing. The reporting system is a key element in the United Kingdom’s defences against money-laundering and terrorist financing.

The report has been prepared by a multi-agency committee, under the chairmanship of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which includes the financial services sector, police, other law enforcement agencies, and the Financial Services Authority. As the report notes, awareness of the value of financial intelligence in fighting crime and countering terrorism continues to rise across the international community.

The Government welcome the steady progress that SOCA and the other participants have made to ensure that the reporting system is operating so as to help deter, detect and disrupt those involved in these crimes and in holding them to account. It is important to build on this progress by further improvements, including in the use made of the reports by law enforcement agencies.

The overall goal is a SARs system that addresses the threats to the UK from crime and terrorism, contributes to the reduction of harm and the recovery of the proceeds of crime while minimising the costs of compliance to industry and others.