What recent steps he has taken to tighten controls on the movement of terrorist assets.

Earlier this year, we set out new measures to tighten controls on terrorist assets, including protecting the charitable sector from the risk of terrorist exploitation, licensing those who own or control a money service business, and promoting the proactive use of asset freezing powers, including the creation of a dedicated Treasury asset freezing unit. I am pleased to say that last week the Financial Action Task Force ranked the UK as the first country to be fully compliant with international standards on terrorist asset freezing. In the second quarter of this year, we made three domestic asset freezing designations under the orders on terrorism and al-Qaeda, and this week I made a further domestic designation.

Tackling money laundering also means, in the words of the Prime Minister, that there should be

"no safe haven for terrorists" and

"no safe hiding place for their funds."

If that is the case, why was Abu Hamza able to buy a £220,000 semi-detached house in Greenford for cash, two years after his assets were supposed to have been frozen by the Treasury?

The police have conducted their own investigation into that case, and I know that the hon. Lady's colleague, Mr. Hands, has raised the issue with my predecessor in an Adjournment Debate. The police were absolutely satisfied that, because no asset was transferred to the designated person, there was no cause for concern.

I welcome my hon. Friend to her new responsibilities and wish her well in them. Britain, of course, cannot do this alone. Is it not important to work with international partners to ensure that what we do here is replicated in the European Union, for example? What plans does she have to work with our EU colleagues to ensure that they adopt practices similar to ours?

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his kind remarks, and I can reassure him that we are in constant contact with our European Union partners on this issue. Indeed, I shall be travelling to Brussels this evening for the budget ECOFIN, where we will support the EU budget lines precisely on these measures.