Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allocate further resources to monitor incidents of money laundering associated with trade finance involving (1) misleading invoices, (2) bills of lading, and (3) the role of banks and other finance specialists in this field.

The Government’s ambitious Economic Crime Plan sets out the significant action we are taking – in conjunction with the private sector – to combat money laundering and other economic crimes. Many of the reforms committed to in the Plan will benefit efforts to tackle trade-based money laundering (TBML), which the 2020 National Risk Assessment on Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing assessed as a growing risk.

On TBML specifically, HMRC has established this threat as a priority illicit finance risk. HMRC’s work includes reviewing current trade compliance procedures and identifying opportunities to enhance our risk detection capabilities.

More widely, we are also investing more to tackle economic crime. The 2020 Spending Review announced an increase in the government’s efforts to tackle economic crime by providing an additional £30.5 million in resource and £32.5 million in capital funding in 2021/22, including support for the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) which coordinates law enforcement’s response to money laundering.

Further to this, we are also currently formulating our response to the Economic Crime Levy consultation. It will raise £100 million of additional funding per year to help fund reforms outlined in the Economic Crime Plan, including for the Suspicious Activity Reports reform programme and an uplift for the UK Financial Intelligence Unit. It will be an important source of funding for our ongoing action to tackle money laundering in all its forms.