The Chair of the Business and Trade Committee has challenged the
Government on its plans to tackle serious economic crime by
hostile foreign actors.
Countries like Iran are abusing UK financial markets and
corporate vehicles, the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee
said in a letter to Government
Minister , “to the detriment of
businesses, households and the national interest.”
He added this was “part of a broader pattern of abuse,” and urged
the Government not to understate the problem.
This week, Mr Hollinrake gave evidence to the Business and Trade
Committee, alongside officials from the Department for Business
and Trade and Companies House, on the UK’s economic crime
strategy.
In response, the Chair has written to Mr Hollinrake to ask if the
Department for Business and Trade will set out an estimate of the
scale of corporate abuse, and what steps it is taking to tackle
the abuse of Limited Partnerships. He also asks for the
Department to supply its targets for the next financial year on
challenging sanctions evasion.
Elsewhere in the letter, the Chair also highlights “industrial
scale identity fraud.” In 2021-2022, Companies House was reported
to have received over 10,000 applications disputing falsely
registered addresses on its corporate registration service.
The Chair notes that the Government has failed to publish a
current estimate of the cost of fraud to UK businesses. He asks
the Government to commit to publishing estimates of both the cost
and full scale of business fraud, and to set out its plans to
tackle the problem.
