Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle Money Laundering and (b) promote ethical financing in the Crown Dependencies and the UK’s Overseas Territories.

The UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories are self-governing jurisdictions with their own democratically-elected governments responsible for most areas of their domestic policy, including fiscal matters. They co-operate with the UK in matters relating to taxation, fighting financial crime and countering terrorist finance.

The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories have committed to meeting the global standards for anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). They are evaluated by the FATF in their own rights as self-governing jurisdictions.

The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories with financial centres share beneficial ownership information with the UK’s law enforcement agencies and are committed to global tax transparency standards such as the OECD Common Reporting Standard, an agreement to automatically exchange financial account information with other jurisdictions.