Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Register of Overseas Entities (Protection and Trusts) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, whether applicants who obtain trust information through this regulation will be allowed to publish this information where it is in the public interest.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Under these regulations the presumption is that trust data on the Register of Overseas Entities will normally be disclosed when requested. Most applications will not require the applicant to demonstrate any legitimate interest. Legitimate interest applies where trust data involves a minor or multiple entities. In such cases, applicants must demonstrate their request relates to the investigation of possible money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing or sanctions breaches, make a statement it is to further their investigation and explain the information's intended use.
A legitimate interest must be shown for each new application.
The registrar will consider any appropriate restrictions on the use and further disclosure of trust information before disclosing this information to a successful applicant. The applicant may publish this information unless the registrar has imposed a restriction on its further disclosure.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Register of Overseas Entities (Protection and Trusts) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, whether applicants will need to demonstrate legitimate interest for each application where relevant or whether legitimate interest will be presumed once demonstrated.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Under these regulations the presumption is that trust data on the Register of Overseas Entities will normally be disclosed when requested. Most applications will not require the applicant to demonstrate any legitimate interest. Legitimate interest applies where trust data involves a minor or multiple entities. In such cases, applicants must demonstrate their request relates to the investigation of possible money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing or sanctions breaches, make a statement it is to further their investigation and explain the information's intended use.
A legitimate interest must be shown for each new application.
The registrar will consider any appropriate restrictions on the use and further disclosure of trust information before disclosing this information to a successful applicant. The applicant may publish this information unless the registrar has imposed a restriction on its further disclosure.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to The Register of Overseas Entities (Protection and Trusts) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, when applicants are required to demonstrate a legitimate interest; how this differs from information required on application under Regulation 4(1).
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Under these regulations the presumption is that trust data on the Register of Overseas Entities will normally be disclosed when requested. Most applications will not require the applicant to demonstrate any legitimate interest. Legitimate interest applies where trust data involves a minor or multiple entities. In such cases, applicants must demonstrate their request relates to the investigation of possible money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing or sanctions breaches, make a statement it is to further their investigation and explain the information's intended use.
A legitimate interest must be shown for each new application.
The registrar will consider any appropriate restrictions on the use and further disclosure of trust information before disclosing this information to a successful applicant. The applicant may publish this information unless the registrar has imposed a restriction on its further disclosure.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether professional body supervisors will share risk assessments of Trusts and Corporate Service Providers with Companies House for (a) assessing and (b) granting authorised Corporate Service Provider status, in the context of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations 2017 require Professional Body Supervisors (PBSs) to identify and assess the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in their supervised populations.
An integrated reporting mechanism established by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) provides the basis for PBSs and Companies House to exchange relevant information, including risk assessments for use in their review of Authorised Corporate Service Provider (‘ACSP’) applications.
In 2024 the Treasury consulted on amendments to the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations to further improve the information sharing and cooperation mechanisms between Companies House and Professional Body Supervisors.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many customer compliance managers there are in the HMRC large business directorate.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of 31 March 2024, HMRC’s Large Business Directorate had a total of 2422 full time equivalent staff working within the directorate which includes 169 Customer Compliance Managers.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people work in the large business directorate in HMRC.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of 31 March 2024, HMRC’s Large Business Directorate had a total of 2422 full time equivalent staff working within the directorate which includes 169 Customer Compliance Managers.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to HMRC's document entitled Measuring tax gaps 2024 edition: tax gap estimates for 2022 to 2023, updated on 20 June 2024, if she will take steps to widen the scope of the published offshore tax gap statistics.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is assessing the feasibility of extending the published estimate of the tax gap arising from undisclosed foreign income, including engaging with academics.
HMRC is determined to address offshore tax non-compliance. At Autumn Budget 2024, the government published a supplementary document outlining HMRC’s approach to addressing offshore tax non-compliance, as part of the government’s wider efforts to close the tax gap: Tackling offshore tax non-compliance - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to require public country-by-country reporting by multinational corporations on (a) taxation and (b) where companies are (i) trading and (ii) making profits.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK is at the forefront of Pillar 2 implementation, ensuring that large multinational enterprises are subject to an effective tax rate of at least 15% in each jurisdiction they operate. The government does not have plans to make country-by-country reports public, but will keep the position under review.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Residual Waste Infrastructure Capacity Note will make an assessment of the adequacy of (a) incineration capacity and (b) potential feedstock availability in the light of (i) the statutory target to halve residual waste sent to either incineration or landfill per person by 2042, (ii) the non-combustible nature of some residual waste, and (iii) competing uses for the feedstock.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy. As part of this we will consider the role of Energy from Waste, including waste incineration, in the context of circularity, economic growth, and reaching net zero.
Defra’s analysis of municipal residual waste treatment infrastructure capacity, including exports, which we hope to publish shortly, sets out incineration capacity and municipal residual waste arisings in England, taking into account the implementation of the packaging reforms up to 2035. The analysis will also give consideration to the levels of residual waste in 2042, in context of the statutory residual waste target to effectively halve residual wastes. This analysis will support decision making relating to planning for new residual waste treatment infrastructure.
Regarding competing uses for the feedstock, the analysis considers all forms of treatment for municipal residual waste, including energy recovery, landfill and exports.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing ring-fenced funding for taking criminal enforcement measures against professional enablers of economic crimes.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
Professional enablers are a critical facilitator of serious and organised crime, particularly in helping criminals and corrupt elites move and hide their illicit funds across the world, including in the UK.
The National Economic Crime Centre launched a cross-system strategy to tackle the serious and organised crime threat posed by professional enablers earlier this year. This sets out a series of actions for the public and private sectors to strengthen the UK’s response to professional enablers and includes commitments to enhance collective understanding, improve public-private data sharing, make better use of powers and intervention tools, and develop joint disruption strategies to tackle the threat.
Criminal justice interventions and regulatory interventions are essential to driving a response. Professional enabler cases are often longer and more protracted than other cases.
While we recognise the potential benefits of ring-fencing funding, we must ensure that our approach to funding remains sufficiently agile to tackle this increasingly complex threat. A critical component of this is the Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy, which provides sustainable, long-term funding to combat economic crime, helping law enforcement agencies pursue criminals and their enablers. This funding, paired with other targeted investment, enables the delivery of key outcomes to protect the UK’s national security whilst supporting economic growth.