Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many professional enablers have been sanctioned in the last 12 months for facilitating the laundering of corrupt assets.

The government is committed to making the UK a hostile environment for illicit finance. The National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks is clear that the financial system, because of the size and openness that makes it a world beater, is also exposed to criminality – including abuse by professional enablers in the legal and accountancy sectors.

In 2014 there were 2095 prosecutions related to money laundering across all sectors and 1143 people were found guilty. Supervisors under the Money Laundering Regulations also have the power to take enforcement action for supervisory offences ranging from issuing warnings and action plans to remedy weaknesses in controls, through to fines and deregistration. In 2014-15 the various bodies that supervise legal and accountancy sectors recorded 1001 such actions. On top of this, HMRC issued a total of 1368 fines, warnings and action plans, which cover all the businesses they supervise for money laundering purposes: accountants, money service businesses, trust or company service providers, estate agents and high value dealers.

In April, we launched the Action Plan for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance, which commits us to establish an enhanced law enforcement response to the threats we face through building new capabilities in law enforcement agencies and exploring tough new legal powers to better enable disruption and prosecution of criminals and terrorists.