Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions for money laundering offences HM Revenue and Customs have brought against individuals in each year since 2013; and how many of those prosecutions resulted in a conviction in each of those years.

HMRC takes a flexible and dynamic resourcing approach to criminally investigating suspected tax crimes and associated money laundering. While HMRC is not a prosecuting authority, we prepare the cases to the highest evidential standard and pass the case to the relevant independent prosecuting authority to decide if the case satisfies the two-stage test for prosecution.

The following is aggregate data for HMRC’s investigations, since 2013 that resulted in a prosecution and conviction for either money laundering offences as set out in Part 7 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, or prosecutable breaches of supervisory requirement in various versions of the Money Laundering Regulations.

To note, criminal investigations can take considerable time to progress and can conclude in a year other than the one in which they are opened. As such there is no direct correlation between yearly figures presented in the table.

[2]cases where the prosecuting authority has agreed to a money laundering or money laundering regulations charge against defendants.

[3] successfully concluded criminal investigations.