Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on how many occasions the outcome of a Financial Conduct Authority action was the (a) cancellation or withdrawal of approvals, (b) a prohibition order, (c) suspension or restriction, (d) a final notice against a person, (e) a fine against a person, (f) public censure and (g) civil action in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
These questions are matters for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is independent from Government. The FCA will respond to the Right Honourable Member by letter, and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many criminal investigations the Financial Conduct Authority opened into individuals in each year since 2013.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
These questions are matters for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is independent from Government. The FCA will respond to the Right Honourable Member by letter, and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of firms regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority are SMEs.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
These questions are matters for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is independent from Government. The FCA will respond to the Right Honourable Member by letter, and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value is of assets frozen under the Russia regime that were (a) Russian state assets held by sanctioned (i) Russian and (ii) commercial banks and (b) other state assets and foreign currency reserves held as, but not limited to, securities or deposits in Pound Sterling in the period since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Between February and October 2022, £18.39 billion in frozen funds were reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, in relation to the Russia sanctions regime. This figure is provided in aggregate so as not to disclose the value of any funds held by particular individuals. HM Treasury does not break down reported assets in the manner requested.
An updated value of frozen assets reported to OFSI will be published later this year, in OFSI’s 2022-2023 Annual Review, in Autumn 2023.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value of assets frozen under the Russia regime is since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Between February and October 2022, £18.39 billion in frozen funds were reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, in relation to the Russia sanctions regime. This figure is provided in aggregate so as not to disclose the value of any funds held by particular individuals. HM Treasury does not break down reported assets in the manner requested.
An updated value of frozen assets reported to OFSI will be published later this year, in OFSI’s 2022-2023 Annual Review, in Autumn 2023.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Economic crime plan 2023 to 2026, published on 30 March 2023, if he will provide a breakdown of the £200 million funding for tackling economic crime in the Spending Review period by (a) the Government Departments and agencies which will receive the funding and (b) how it breaks down into (i) resource departmental expenditure limits (RDEL), (ii) resource annually managed expenditure (AME), (iii) capital departmental expenditure limits (CDEL) and (iv) Capital AME.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The second Economic Crime Plan is underpinned by significant investment of £400 million from financial year 2022/23 to financial year 2024/25. This funding represents £200 million of government investment and £200 million from the Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy, which together provide sustainable, long-term funding to combat economic crime.
The Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy funding will be used over the next three years to benefit the entire anti-money laundering system in both the public and private sectors. This includes investing over £100 million in technology, funding for more skilled financial crime investigators, specialist intelligence teams, and the UK Financial Intelligence Unit. Additionally, it will fund a team to accelerate the reform of the AML supervisory supervision regime. In tandem, funding announced at Spending Review 2021 will continue to support reform of the Suspicious Activity Reports regime, reform of Companies House, and the work of HM Treasury's Illicit Finance Technical Assistance Unit (TAU).
For further details please see the Spending Review 2021 document which can be found here:
Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021: documents - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many licences granted by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation since 24 February 2022, in connection with the Russia regime, related to (a) covering expenses such as food, rent and medicines, referred to as basic needs, (b) reasonable professional legal fees or reasonable expenses associated with the provision of legal services, (c) prior obligations, if the obligation/contract started before the sanction was imposed, (d) covering the payment of fees/service charges for routine holding or maintenance of frozen funds or economic resources, (e) pre-existing judicial decisions, (f) extraordinary expenses, where considered appropriate, (g) extraordinary situations, where considered appropriate and only for non-UN listed persons, (h) humanitarian assistance and (i) diplomatic missions.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) publishes the number of financial sanctions licences issued in its Annual Review. Information about the total number of licences including the number of licences for each derogation that OFSI has granted for the last five financial years can be found in OFSI’s Annual Review documents, which are publicly available on OFSI’s website. OFSI will publish the latest figures in the next Annual Review in due course. OFSI does not publish details about individual licences granted, including source and quantum of funds licensed.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many licences the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has issued to individuals and companies connected with Russia since 24 August 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) publishes the number of financial sanctions licences issued in its Annual Review. Information about the total number of licences including the number of licences for each derogation that OFSI has granted for the last five financial years can be found in OFSI’s Annual Review documents, which are publicly available on OFSI’s website. OFSI will publish the latest figures in the next Annual Review in due course. OFSI does not publish details about individual licences granted, including source and quantum of funds licensed.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value was of licenses granted by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation relating to Russia since 24 February 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) publishes the number of financial sanctions licences issued in its Annual Review. Information about the total number of licences including the number of licences for each derogation that OFSI has granted for the last five financial years can be found in OFSI’s Annual Review documents, which are publicly available on OFSI’s website. OFSI will publish the latest figures in the next Annual Review in due course. OFSI does not publish details about individual licences granted, including source and quantum of funds licensed.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many offshore company trust data requests his Department have (a) received and (b) responded to since 1 September 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Since 1 September 2022, HMRC has received 19 Trust Data Requests under the ‘Offshore Company’ category and 29 Trust Data Requests under the ‘Legitimate Interest’ category. This figure includes all contact received through this route and may include some contact that is not appropriate to the trust data request process.
HMRC has reviewed 28 of these requests to date and identified 16 that were submitted in error. Of those reviewed and not submitted in error, HMRC has responded to six ‘Offshore Company’ requests and two ‘Legitimate Interest’ requests. The average response time to ‘Offshore Company’ requests since 1 September 2022 is 20 weeks. The average response time to ‘Legitimate Interest’ requests since the 1 September 2022 is 17 weeks.