Money Laundering: UK Parliamentarians

Lord Razzall Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness O’Cathain (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Razzall (LD)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Deighton]

I can confirm that that will be precisely the message in the final negotiations on the fourth money laundering directive.

[Lord Razzall]

My Lords, I am sure that the Minister will accept that his answers have not entirely reassured Members of this House who are treated as politically exposed persons. Perhaps he can explain to me and to many of my colleagues who are not members of the Government: what is it that we might do, or what might be done to us, that makes us politically exposed people?

[Lord Deighton]

The thing to remember is that although the intention behind this approach is to catch potentially corrupt public officials around the world, defining someone as a PEP is not an end in itself—it is merely a trigger point at which an assessment should be made of the individual’s business and whether it is high risk. It is that assessment of whether it is high risk that is not working well enough at the moment.