Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to require estate agents to carry out anti-money-laundering due diligence checks on the purchaser of a property, in addition to those they carry out on the seller.

The Government will consult this year on transposing the 4th EU Money Laundering Directive in order to comply with the revised global standards of the Financial Action Task Force. We will use this to consult on other changes to improve the effectiveness of the UK’s anti-money laundering and counter terrorist finance regime, including whether or not to require estate agents to conduct due diligence on the buyer as well as the seller of a property.

The Government is committed to protecting the financial system and national security, through effective and proportionate use of financial sanctions, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist and proliferation finance measures. All those dealing with property transactions in the UK, including banks, lawyers and estate agents, are required to actively detect and prevent money laundering including reporting suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency and conducting customer due diligence using a risk-based approach.