The £350 Billion a Year Lost to Corruption, Tax Dodging and Crime Every Year in the UK
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Economic crime, corruption and a lack of financial transparency could be costing the UK up to £350 billion a year, a new report suggests.
The All Party Parliamentary Groups on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax and Fair Banking report argues that recovering money lost in the system and preventing future losses could be the key to much-needed economic growth.
The report launch occurred on the same day as Rachel Reeves welfare cuts u-turn left the Government with a £5 billion hole in its economic plans.
The Clean Foundations for Growth report states that the UK is "both a destination and transit country for economic crime primarily via Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies" and recommends implementing a publicly accessible register of beneficial ownership for companies operating there as an interim measure.
It also urges the Government to "create a real deterrent to enabling tax dodging, pro-actively using existing powers and requiring tax advisers to register with a regulatory body".
How Tax Evasion Was Allowed to Soar Under the Conservatives
A damning new report reveals growing numbers of small businesses and retail outlets have used a series of scams to evade paying tax
David Hencke
Pushback against transparency rules from British Overseas Territories - which operate as tax havens - is a major hurdle for the Government in implementing an anticorruption agenda.
In 2020, the UK Government ordered the Overseas Territories to introduce publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers.
The publication of the anti-corruption report came two days after the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Bermuda, Anguilla and Turks and Caicos missed a key deadline on implementing a register of beneficial ownership listed in the territories.
On 23 June, BVI also announced a new policy on access to beneficial ownership information. It would only allow access to information about companies registered there if the party requesting it had a credible reason to believe that someone with a 25% or higher stake in a firm has violated anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing or counter-weapons proliferation financing rules.
After BVI missed the register deadline, the UK Anticorruption Coalition (UKACC) - a collection of anticorruption NGOs - stated "far from moving towards increased transparency and shining a light on economic crimes and tax abuse, their plans would actively place journalists and civil society actors at legal and physical risk".
It added: "This is all the more concerning given that the BVI has recently been added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list due to serious deficiencies in its anti-money laundering regime."
If a country, or territory, fails to act on corruption and economic crime while on the grey list
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
Economic crime, corruption and a lack of financial transparency could be costing the UK up to £350 billion a year, a new report suggests.
The All Party Parliamentary Groups on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax and Fair Banking report argues that recovering money lost in the system and preventing future losses could be the key to much-needed economic growth.
The report launch occurred on the same day as Rachel Reeves welfare cuts u-turn left the Government with a £5 billion hole in its economic plans.
The Clean Foundations for Growth report states that the UK is "both a destination and transit country for economic crime primarily via Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies" and recommends implementing a publicly accessible register of beneficial ownership for companies operating there as an interim measure.
It also urges the Government to "create a real deterrent to enabling tax dodging, pro-actively using existing powers and requiring tax advisers to register with a regulatory body".
How Tax Evasion Was Allowed to Soar Under the Conservatives
A damning new report reveals growing numbers of small businesses and retail outlets have used a series of scams to evade paying tax
David Hencke
Pushback against transparency rules from British Overseas Territories - which operate as tax havens - is a major hurdle for the Government in implementing an anticorruption agenda.
In 2020, the UK Government ordered the Overseas Territories to introduce publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers.
The publication of the anti-corruption report came two days after the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Bermuda, Anguilla and Turks and Caicos missed a key deadline on implementing a register of beneficial ownership listed in the territories.
On 23 June, BVI also announced a new policy on access to beneficial ownership information. It would only allow access to information about companies registered there if the party requesting it had a credible reason to believe that someone with a 25% or higher stake in a firm has violated anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing or counter-weapons proliferation financing rules.
After BVI missed the register deadline, the UK Anticorruption Coalition (UKACC) - a collection of anticorruption NGOs - stated "far from moving towards increased transparency and shining a light on economic crimes and tax abuse, their plans would actively place journalists and civil society actors at legal and physical risk".
It added: "This is all the more concerning given that the BVI has recently been added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list due to serious deficiencies in its anti-money laundering regime."
If a country, or territory, fails to act on corruption and economic crime while on the grey list
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