Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will include a new offence of failing to prevent economic crime in the provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill announced in the Queen's Speech 2022.

Building on the recently enacted Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will bear down further on kleptocrats, criminals and terrorists who abuse our financial system, strengthening the UK's reputation as a place where legitimate business can thrive while driving dirty money out of the UK.

As set out in the Queen’s Speech, the Bill will include reform of Companies House, reforms to prevent abuse of limited partnerships, additional powers to seize suspect cryptoassets more quickly and easily, and reforms to give businesses more confidence to share information in order to tackle money laundering and other economic crime.

The Government keeps UK law under regular review to ensure a robust legislative framework. In 2020, the Government commissioned the Law Commission to undertake a detailed review of how the legislative system could be improved to appropriately capture and punish criminal offences committed by corporations, with a particular focus on economic crime.

The Law Commission report was published on 10 June. The Government will carefully assess the options presented and will take forward the strongest options for reform.