The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Simon Kirby)
The Government have opted in to the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) provisions within the European Commission’s proposal to amend the fourth anti-money laundering directive. These provisions require sharing of data from registers between Financial Intelligence Units and law enforcement authorities, which we consider falls within the scope of Article 87 of the treaty on the functioning of the EU. As such, the Government believe these are JHA obligations and therefore the UK’s JHA opt-in is triggered. We have informed Council of that fact.
The Government have decided to opt in to these provisions as they improve data sharing between financial intelligence units. This is an important and necessary part of our anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime.
[HCWS567]