John Baron MP: economic crime enforcement agencies need to be better funded

MP votes for stronger economic crime measures

Yesterday in the House of Commons, the Government passed all stages of the Economic Crime Bill which will aid efforts to crack down on ‘dirty money’ in the UK. It will introduce a Register of Overseas Entities as well as improve the powers of Unexplained Wealth Orders. However, John Baron MP believes the Government needs to go further, and this should include better funding for the various enforcement agencies.

John said:

“It is an inconvenient truth that no matter how good the legislation, no matter how robust the rules and laws, they can be made ineffective if they are not properly enforced. To be properly enforced, they have to be properly funded, so although many of us on both sides of the House welcome the Bill, some of us, think it should go further—we have tabled various amendments to that end.”

“Various estimates, including those of Spotlight on Corruption, suggest that over the past five years, the number of prosecutions for money laundering has dropped by nearly a third; the National Crime Agency has obtained only five successful prosecutions a year, on average; and the number of individuals convicted by the Serious Fraud Office is on a downward trend. We speak strong words in this place, but what is happening on the frontline is that the people committing economic crime are winning, and winning big time. It is as simple as that.”

“We should remember that the National Crime Agency has received a decrease in its core budget over the past five years, with the outgoing director general calling for a 54% increase in funding for that agency. We must ensure that our law enforcement agencies are properly funded.”

“In the long term, we could introduce measures that would let our law enforcement agencies take a share of the proceeds of successful prosecutions—why not? Some overseas agencies do. However, in the short term our agencies need to be properly funded in order to bring them up to speed and take these many criminals to task. Putin thinks that the west is weak, and he thinks this country is weak when it comes to this issue. It is up to this House, on a cross-party basis, to prove him wrong…”

Ends
Word Count: 388
Date: 8th March 2022

Notes to Editors

John’s speech can be found at https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-03-07/debates/97B249F2-C666-46EF-B46A-F2FF22DE2264/EconomicCrime(TransparencyAndEnforcement)Bill#contribution-58DAE3EE-394F-4C34-BE97-77D5CEABFA38

John supported and voted for a Labour Amendment [in the name of Dame Margaret Hodge MP] which asked for a report on the funding of those enforcement agencies relevant to the Bill and a Conservative Amendment [from Rt. Hon. David Davis MP] which called for the freezing of assets of those individuals being investigated – both amendments were defeated. John also supported other Labour amendments [from Chris Bryant MP] but these were not put to the vote. John’s amendment calling for a review of funding for all enforcement agencies was not selected for a vote.