Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of (a) progress on implementing the Fourth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive, (b) the performance of HM Revenue and Customs as administrators of the central register and (c) the effectiveness of the IT system used by HM Revenue and Customs to facilitate financial agents in undertaking registrations on behalf of their clients.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Responses to the consultation on transposing EU Fourth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive into UK law generally supported the Government’s proposed approach to the new registration system.
Since its implementation, HMRC have supported users of the Trust Registration Service (TRS) through newsletters, webinars, guidance, a dedicated helpline and meetings with professional and tax representative bodies. HMRC have enabled registration where agents do not have all the data required by law but have made all reasonable efforts to find it, and have also extended the registration deadlines from 5 October 2017 and 31 January 2018 to 5 January 2018 and 5 March 2018, respectively.
The TRS will allow HMRC to collect, hold, retrieve and share information with Law Enforcement Authorities to help identify and disrupt suspicious activity involving the misuse of trusts for money laundering or terrorist financing.