Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what progress she has made on plans to create a whistleblowing incentive program within the Serious Fraud Office.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This Government is committed to cracking down on serious fraud and economic crime.
The Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has expressed support for the incentivisation of whistleblowers and the SFO Strategy 2024-29 committed to explore options for achieving this, working with partners in the UK and abroad.
The Government will continue to work with the SFO to understand what reforms could be made to help them deliver their mission as effectively as possible.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many electronic money institutions have (a) had their activities restricted and (b) been de-authorised following an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question is a matter for Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which is an independent, non-governmental body.
The FCA will respond to the Honourable Member by letter and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number of (a) Suspicious Activity Reports and (b) Defence Against Money Laundering Suspicious Activity Reports from electronic payment providers.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury’s Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 place requirements onto electronic payment providers to establish policies, controls and procedures to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing.
HM Treasury works closely with the National Crime Agency, who are responsible for collecting and interpreting Suspicious Activity Reports and other intelligence, and with the Financial Conduct Authority, who supervise authorised electronic payment providers, to monitor the threat. The government will be publishing an updated assessment of the risks in its upcoming update to the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will expand the list of prescribed people for whistleblowing to include (a) job applicants, (b) trustees, (c) independent contractors and (d) trade union representatives.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The whistleblowing framework enables workers to seek redress if they are dismissed or suffer detriment because they have made a ‘protected disclosure’. The standard employment law definition of worker has been extended to provide whistleblowing protections to NHS job applicants and other categories of worker such as trainees, agency workers and certain NHS workers. The government has no plans to extend the protections more generally but to qualify for protection, the worker must make their disclosure in accordance with the Employment Rights Act 1996, which can include making it to a ‘prescribed person’. DBT regularly updates the list of prescribed persons.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what his planned timetable is for the review of the whistleblowing framework.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Employment Rights Bill delivers on the government's commitment to strengthening protections for whistleblowers, by updating protections for women who report sexual harassment at work.
The Government is keen to work with organisations and individuals who have ideas on how to strengthen the whistleblowing framework and we will consider options to review the whistleblowing framework in due course.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on implementing a deposit return scheme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to delivering the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in October 2027, as agreed with the devolved Governments of the UK, and in accordance with the Joint Policy Statement published in April 2024.
We plan to lay the DRS regulations for England/Northern Ireland before Parliament in late 2024 and for them to come into force in early 2025 (assuming parliamentary time allows) and for the Deposit Management Organisation (DMO), who will run the scheme, to be appointed in April 2025 as planned.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2024 to Question 8363, what minimum requirements his Department set out as being an expectation in any legitimate interest access regime for public registers of beneficial ownership in the Overseas Territories.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Tackling illicit finance in the UK, as well as in our Overseas Territories (OTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) is a priority for this Government. We consider publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership (PARBOs) a vital tool for combatting financial secrecy. I have been clear to OT leaders that full PARBOs are our ultimate expectation. Where a legitimate interest access regime is implemented as an interim step, I have set out minimum requirements, and the UK's belief that any legitimate interest registers should be delivered with the maximum degree of access and transparency. I was delighted Montserrat joined Gibraltar in launching a full PARBO on 11 October. We are continuing to engage with OTs, and I will discuss this with leaders at the Joint Ministerial Council next week. I am looking forward to further progress on this by other OTs in the very near future.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department plans to publish the 2025 edition of the National Risk Register; and whether she plans to enable Parliament to (a) feed into and (b) scrutinise that register.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The UK is facing an ever-changing and growing set of risks. All risks in the National Risk Register, which is the public-facing version of the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment, are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity.
The National Risk Register will be updated in the coming months.
Lead government departments are responsible for providing updates and use the latest evidence and analysis to ensure the government’s assessment of risks reflects the risk landscape.
The Government is committed to opportunities for openness and scrutiny, for example, the opportunity to discuss risk assessment at the Public Accounts Committee on Extreme Weather events in February 2024.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the report entitled Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan published by the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan on 6 September 2024.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Following publication of its first report in September, the UK co-led the renewal on 9 October 2024 of the Fact-Finding Mission's mandate for a further year. The UK will continue to use its position as penholder at the Security Council and the Human Rights Council to keep a spotlight on the human rights situation in Sudan. During the 120-day UN Security Council session on Sudan on 28 October, the UK called on the warring parties to urgently facilitate humanitarian access, and we have also called on Member States to refrain from external interference, including our explanation of vote following the adoption of resolution 2750 on 11 September to renew the UN Darfur arms embargo and sanctions regime. The UK welcomes the Secretary-General's recommendations on protection of civilians, which was requested in UK-led resolution 2736 as an important step for prioritising protection of civilians in the conflict. It concluded that conditions for the successful deployment of a Protection of Civilians force, as recommended in the FFM's report, do not currently exist.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the (a) potential risk of the use of e-payment platforms for money laundering and (b) likelihood that those platforms are used to launder criminal money originating from Russia.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This government is committed to supporting safe innovation within our financial technology sectors. The UK’s 2020 National Risk Assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing judged that payment and e-money services were at medium risk of money laundering. Reflecting this risk, payment service providers and electric money institutions offering e-payment platforms in the UK are required to be authorised by the FCA, and supervised to ensure they meet the anti-money laundering requirements set out in the Money Laundering Regulations. The government is continuing to monitor this risk, and intends to publish an updated National Risk Assessment next year.