Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to empower regulators and law enforcement agencies to prevent and detect the laundering of corrupt assets through the UK financial system.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
In April, we launched the Action Plan for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance, to address the gaps identified in the National Risk Assessment, and to make significant changes to improve our response to threats.
The Action Plan will reform the supervisory regime so that the high anti-money laundering standards and controls that the UK subscribes to are implemented successfully.
It also commits us to establish an enhanced law enforcement response to the threats we face through building new capabilities in law enforcement agencies and exploring tough new legal powers to enable the relentless disruption and prosecution of criminals and terrorists.
Furthermore, the Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Summit in May launched a number of new initiatives to address illicit financial flows and give momentum to existing projects.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many professional enablers have been sanctioned in the last 12 months for facilitating the laundering of corrupt assets.
Answered by David Gauke
The government is committed to making the UK a hostile environment for illicit finance. The National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks is clear that the financial system, because of the size and openness that makes it a world beater, is also exposed to criminality – including abuse by professional enablers in the legal and accountancy sectors.
In 2014 there were 2095 prosecutions related to money laundering across all sectors and 1143 people were found guilty. Supervisors under the Money Laundering Regulations also have the power to take enforcement action for supervisory offences ranging from issuing warnings and action plans to remedy weaknesses in controls, through to fines and deregistration. In 2014-15 the various bodies that supervise legal and accountancy sectors recorded 1001 such actions. On top of this, HMRC issued a total of 1368 fines, warnings and action plans, which cover all the businesses they supervise for money laundering purposes: accountants, money service businesses, trust or company service providers, estate agents and high value dealers.
In April, we launched the Action Plan for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance, which commits us to establish an enhanced law enforcement response to the threats we face through building new capabilities in law enforcement agencies and exploring tough new legal powers to better enable disruption and prosecution of criminals and terrorists.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress has been made in the renegotiation of the 1955 UK-Malawi taxation treaty and what matters have yet to be agreed during that renegotiation.
Answered by David Gauke
Discussions with Malawi over a new tax treaty began some years ago, and substantive agreement has been reached at official level. The Malawian government have stated that they hope to be in a position to sign the new treaty in the near future.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of (a) the current proportion of air passenger duty revenues which are raised from Manchester Airport and (b) the potential effect on that proportion of air passenger duty in Scotland being reduced by 50 per cent.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Air Passenger Duty is payable by airlines and not on a per airport basis. Therefore HMRC does not collect the data to produce a reliable estimate.
The government is currently undertaking a consultation into options to support regional airports from the impacts of air passenger duty devolution. We are carefully considering the evidence we have received from stakeholders and will respond in due course.