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Written question asked by David Lammy (Labour) on Tuesday, 18 April 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 20 April 2017. It was answered by Simon Kirby (Conservative) on Monday, 24 April 2017 on behalf of the Treasury.

Property: Money Laundering

Question

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the proceeds of (a) tax evasion, (b) tax avoidance, (c) corruption and (d) other criminal activities are not used to purchase property in the UK.

Answer

The Government is determined to make the UK a hostile environment for illicit finance and is making the biggest changes to our anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime in a decade.

The Government announced in March that the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 will clarify that estate agents must undertake customer due diligence measures on purchasers as well as sellers in a property transaction.

In addition, the Criminal Finances Bill provides new investigative powers, including Unexplained Wealth Orders, that will make it easier for our law enforcement agencies to investigate money laundering in the London property market and recover the proceeds of crime.

The Bill also contains new offences of corporate failure to prevent tax evasion, which will help ensure that companies that facilitate tax evasion will face penalties.

Furthermore, the Government has recently published a call for evidence seeking views on a new register of overseas companies that own property in the UK.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
71110
Session
2016-17
Transferred
Yes
Subjects
Property Money laundering
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk