Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government has taken to reduce the amount of suspicious wealth owned by people resident in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

The UK has a robust legal and regulatory framework which enables effective investigation and prosecution of money laundering, corruption and the recovery of illicit assets. This Government has recovered more criminal assets than ever before. Using Proceeds of Crime Act powers, £1.4bn was taken from offenders between April 2010 and March 2017, with many hundreds of millions more frozen.

Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) were introduced on 31 January 2018. UWOs are an important addition to existing investigation powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and compel individuals to explain the sources of their wealth where it is suspected that their lawful income would be insufficient to obtain specified property and they are a non-EEA politically exposed person or suspected of being involved in serious crime.

The National Crime Agency has secured two UWOs to investigate assets totalling £22m that are believed to ultimately be owned by a politically-exposed person. The assets have also been frozen.

The Home Office has established a suspicious activity report (SARs) Reform Programme, working with reporters, law enforcement and regulators, to design an effective regime that can make the UK an even more hostile place to move, use or hide illicit finances.