The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP Chair of the Home Affairs Committee House of Commons SW1A 0AA

The Rt Hon Mel Stride MP Committee House of Commons London SW1A 0AA 04 May 2021

Dear Yvette and Mel,

Today, the and HM Treasury is publishing the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress.

As you are aware, in July 2019, alongside the private sector, we published the first Economic Crime Plan (2019-2022), setting out how the UK’s public and private sectors would work together to deliver a whole-system response to economic crime, through fifty-two actions.

The Economic Crime Plan committed the Government to publish a Statement of Progress to update the public and stakeholders on implementation. Published at the mid-point of the Plan the Statement outlines our progress, with 20 of the 52 actions now complete. It also sets out seven further strategic actions, as agreed at February’s Economic Crime Strategic Board. These actions (at Annex A) build on the existing actions in the Plan and further step up our level of ambition to combat economic crime, support our growth and prosperity, and enhance our global reputation as a clean financial centre and a safe place to do business.

The Economic Crime Strategic Board and the Economic Crime Delivery Board will expand its oversight of the delivery of the Economic Crime Plan to also include monitoring of the additional deliverables committed to in the Statement on Progress. Meanwhile, the Public Private Steering Group1 will remain the forum that oversees those actions for which private sector organisations share responsibility for.

A copy of this letter and the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Baroness Williams of Trafford MP Minister of State (Home Office) Economic Secretary to the Treasury

1 Joint public private senior board, co-chaired at Director General/Director level in Home Office and HM Treasury, along with senior private sector attendees from sectors such as financial, legal, accountancy, insurance and property. Annex A:

1. Design and deliver a comprehensive Fraud Action Plan;

2. Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the whole system response to economic crime, increasing high value intelligence to law enforcement and reducing low value activity that costs business and delivers little benefit;

3. Bolster public private operational action to tackle known vulnerabilities enabling the flow of illicit finance within and out of the UK;

4. Continue to deliver Suspicious Activity Reports reform, including the next stages of the rollout of the new IT infrastructure and the increase in UK Financial Intelligence Unit staffing;

5. Finalise the Sustainable Resourcing Model to support economic crime reform;

6. Develop legislative proposals to tackle fraud, money laundering, seize more criminal assets, and to strengthen corporate transparency (e.g. Companies House Reform);

7. Capitalise on the G7 Presidency to strengthen the overall international response to illicit finance and anti-corruption.