Corruption: Low and Middle-income Countries
Debate between Earl of Effingham and Baroness Chapman of Darlington
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
It is not my job to speak for the Deputy Prime Minister, but our resolve on this remains unchanged and is shared by the newly appointed Foreign Secretary. My noble friend is right to raise the issue of the overseas territories. My colleague, Minister Doughty, recently met the overseas territories. There is progress. We have transparency measures, and fully transparent interest registers are available with Gibraltar, St Helena and, I think, Montserrat as well. There is more to do. Other OTs are taking steps in the right direction, but we want to see them go much further. We have taken the significant step, which I think my noble friend will appreciate, of sending the noble Baroness, Lady Hodge, to meet BVI to try to encourage it to do what we would like it to do because, as my noble friend says, this is so important in our international fight against illicit finance.
The Earl of Effingham (Con)
My Lords, strengthening existing powers is, of course, welcome, but we already have £25 billion in frozen Russian assets, £13 billion in frozen Libyan assets and £5 billion in frozen cryptocurrency. When are the Government going to take action to put these funds to good use to help our allies in Ukraine, and with the crypto to help our own citizens?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
Of course, the noble Earl is right, and nobody would like to see that money released and able to be spent in Ukraine more than me. We have to act within the law as it currently stands and as his Government left it last year. We do not have the power, as he knows, to seize those assets in a way that is straightforward, but we will work through the courts and with our neighbours and allies, across Europe specifically, to make sure that the people who caused the damage in Ukraine are held to account and that, whenever possible, they are the people who end up paying for it.
Sanctions Implementation and Enforcement
Debate between Earl of Effingham and Baroness Chapman of Darlington(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
That is a really interesting question. I had not thought about that, but I will speak to colleagues at MHCLG to see if we can do something along the lines the noble Lord describes, because compliance is enhanced when people understand why they are being asked to do things. It is a really interesting comment, and we need to work very closely across government on this.
The Earl of Effingham (Con)
My Lords, I quote David Lammy, who correctly said that we have to act quickly, and that
“I believe we should move from freezing assets to seizing assets”.—[Official Report, Commons, 25/2/25; col. 626.]
That was in February of this year. The noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, correctly asked, “What are we doing to start using these assets”? We have £25 billion. The Minister said that we are continuing to look at this. I appreciate that, clearly, we have to respect the law, but that is a lot of assets and a considerable amount of time has already passed since David Lammy made those comments. Are the best legal minds—and we have many of those in this country—looking at this? What are the real barriers? Surely, that would help the Ukrainians, who need the funding.
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
I do not think the noble Earl will find any disagreement on this side of the House. I take his encouragement to move at a faster pace.