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Crime: Money Laundering and Terrorist Finance

My honourable friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Ed Balls) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. In my Written Ministerial Statement of 10 October 2006, I undertook to report to Parliament on a quarterly basis on the operation of the UK's asset-freezing regime. This is the second of these reports and covers the period January-March 2007.¹ Asset-freezing framework The Government launched their strategy to combat money laundering and terrorist finance on28 February 2007. As my Statement to Parliament of the same date explained, the strategy outlines the Government's key priorities for the future, along with measures to deliver these. New measures include further steps to promote the proactive use of asset-freezing powers; notably, the creation of a dedicated Treasury asset-freezing unit that will increase the expertise and operational focus brought to bear on asset freezing, in response to advice from law enforcement and security agencies. Asset-freezing designations In the quarter January-March 2007, the Treasury made 19 domestic designations under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2006 and the Al-Qaida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2006. Of these, 12 persons already designated under earlier orders were re-designated under these orders. The terrorism order and the Al-Qaeda and Taliban order provide, where appropriate, for designations to be made confidentially and with restricted circulation of notice. No persons were designated on this basis in this quarter. Two persons were designated on the basis of closed-source evidence provided by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. There were no financial sanctions listings, in relation to terrorism or Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, of persons with links to the UK at the EU or the UN. No designated persons have been delisted in this quarter. A total of 223 separate accounts and approximately £555,000² of suspected terrorist funds have been frozen in the UK since 2001. Litigation There has been one case of domestic litigation regarding financial sanctions. The Court of Appeal judgment of 6 March 2007 in the case of M, A, and MM v Her Majesty's Treasury [2006] EWCH 2328 (Admin), confirmed the High Court judgment of22 September 2006 upholding the Treasury's actions regarding benefits payments to the households of listed individuals. Reviews The Treasury keeps domestic asset-freezing cases under review. A number of formal reviews have been initiated in this quarter and the reviews of 12 cases have been completed. In all cases decisions were taken following the review to maintain the asset freeze. Licensing policy In accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1452 (2002), the Treasury operates a licensing system whereby designated persons and others are able to apply to make or receive payments under specific and, if necessary, monitored conditions. In this quarter, the following licences were issued: four listed persons were granted basic expenses licences; three of which were for benefits payments; four listed persons were granted extraordinary expenses licences; and 23 listed persons were granted legal expenses licences. In addition, the households of two listed persons were granted benefits licences in accordance with the policy I set out in my Statement of 3 July 2006 to Parliament. "¹ The detail that can be provided to the House on a quarterly basis is subject to the need to avoid the identification, directly or indirectly, of personal or operationally sensitive information.""² This figure includes $58,000 of suspected terrorist funds frozen in the UK. This has been converted using current exchange rates. Future fluctuations in the exchange rate may impact on the contribution this sum makes to future totals of suspected terrorist funds frozen."