Oral Answers to Questions

Steff Aquarone Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Steff Aquarone (North Norfolk) (LD)]

1. What steps she is taking to help ensure the illicit finance summit 2026 will tackle international economic crime.

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Stephen Doughty)]

Mr Speaker, may I associate myself entirely with your remarks about Her late Majesty?

The illicit finance summit will convene a coalition of international partners to scale up global enforcement against illicit finance. The summit will forge new partnerships to combat this shared threat, including illicit gold, money laundering in the property sector and the abuse of cryptoassets. The summit builds on our long-term commitment to this agenda, which is also shown in the 2025 UK anti-corruption strategy, and will complement our upcoming presidency of the Financial Action Task Force and other meetings.

[Steff Aquarone]

The summit is an opportunity for global action on the dirty money that flows through our financial systems, but the Foreign Secretary might rightly be asked by our international partners why overseas territories, who fly our flag and have our King as their Head of State, are preventing transparency and accountability for billions of pounds of illicit finance. Britain should be a world leader in tackling dirty money, but we have to get our house in order. Can the Minister assure the House and our international partners that he will bring overseas territories into line, and can he outline which of his powers he will use to do so?