MPs launch manifesto for combating economic crime

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax and the APPG for Fair Business Banking have published ‘Economic Crime Manifesto 2’ jointly. The paper updates a previous manifesto published in 2022, which has seen some of its recommendations adopted, such as reform of Companies House and a Register of Overseas Entities owning UK property.

In the Foreword to the paper, Dame Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the responsible tax APPG, and who is stepping down from the Commons at the forthcoming election, said: “With a General Election this year, all parliamentarians – both old and new – will have to work to ensure that the UK is no longer the destination of choice for criminals, kleptocrats, and fraudsters. The next Parliament must continue pursuing the fight against our dirty money epidemic.”

Conservative MP Nigel Mills, a co-chair of the APPG, said: “Tackling economic crime is vital to our economy and prosperity. It signals to the world that we welcome legitimate and clean investment, and that Britain is a trusted place to set up a company and do business. Reducing tax avoidance and evasion is just as important.”

Recommendations

The recommendations in the manifesto are grouped under four headings: transparency, regulation, enforcement and accountability.

Transparency recommendations include:

• Ensure that public registers of beneficial ownership in the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are swiftly implemented with full and free access to company data
• Make the trust register public and publish information about all parties to trusts that own properties via overseas entities
• Create an open register for the beneficial owners of UK land

Regulation recommendations include:

• Introduce ‘failure to prevent’ fraud and money laundering offences
• Tax advisers and accountants must be signed up as members of a professional body. Professionals whose membership has been revoked for tax fraud should no longer be allowed to operate
• Extend anti-money laundering regulation to private schools, universities, PR agencies, developers, all letting agents and commodity traders

Enforcement recommendations include:

• The Treasury and Home Office must properly resource and equip our law enforcement agencies for combating economic crime through innovative solutions
• Consolidate the web of siloed professional body supervisors into a strengthened statutory body for the legal and accountancy sectors, Trust and Company Service Providers, as well as potentially other high-risk sectors, accountable to HM Treasury
• HMRC must use its powers more proactively and impose penalties and criminal sanctions on promoters of tax avoidance schemes

Accountability recommendations include:

• Expanding the Lobbying Act to encompass declarations from a broader spectrum of lobbyists, including in-house consultants, NGOs and industry associations. Declarations should furnish meaningful insights into the content of a wider array of interactions, including informal meetings, phone calls, and text messages
• The Government should appoint an Independent Economic Crime Commissioner to ensure accountability across government departments
• Enhance parliamentary scrutiny of our enforcement agencies and regulatory or supervisory bodies responsible for tax and economic crimes, with a new Select Committee of both Houses that would work under Privy Council terms, like the Intelligence and Security Committee. It would have access to information on individual cases in confidence.