Westminster Hall Briefing - Foreign Affairs Committee Report on Illicit Finance

November 2022

Against the backdrop of increasing Russian pressure on Ukraine ahead of its full-scale invasion, in February 2022, the Foreign Affairs Committee launched an inquiry on responding to illicit and emerging finance, publishing key findings in June. Since the Committee began its inquiry, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the UK Government passed emergency legislation, the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, to set up a register of overseas entities that own UK property assets. This is now being followed by a second tranche of economic crime legislation, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (ECCTB).

This debate, and the subsequent briefing, was organised as a result of the government response to the Committee’s report.