Draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Ring-fenced Bodies and Core Activities) (Amendment) Order 2018

Alison Thewliss Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2018 General Committees

[Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. The SNP cautiously welcomes the order, but feels that it could go further. As the powers to tackle tax evasion and avoidance largely lie here, we do not feel that the UK Government are being proactive enough to gather those funds into the public purse. As the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde said, the funds represent a significant amount of money that all our constituents should see the benefit of.

It is positive that banks will be able to effectively comply with the ring-fencing regime and provide crucial regulatory protection for consumers, but we are concerned that the UK Government need to improve the sanctions regime. That cannot wait until 2021 when public services are being cut. Why will the Minister wait until 2021, which is quite some time from now, to review the measure? We may learn lessons more quickly than that. It would make sense to review it and ensure that we are learning, rather than to wait and pick up the pieces afterwards.

In the context of the legislation, which has territorial extent in Scotland, what consultation has been done with the Scottish Government? Our robust anti-avoidance rules on devolved taxes where we have control are among the toughest in the world. We would like the UK Government to follow our lead and crack down on some of the current tax avoidance. We are serious about doing that in the areas that we control, and we would like there to be a consistent approach that uses best practice.

Although the measure is a welcome step in the right direction, the UK Government must take more action and accept the criticisms of the sanctions regime that were raised some months ago in the Committee of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018—a much colder room than this one. They should also tackle dirty money as well as tax avoidance and evasion, because huge sums of money are still being laundered through Scottish limited partnerships. I appreciate that that consultation closes on 23 July, but it would be useful to hear anything that the Minister can tell us about when action will be taken following the conclusion of that review.