Division number 1 For: Adam, George, Adam, Karen, Allan, Dr Alasdair, Arthur, Tom, Beattie, Colin, Brown, Keith, Brown, Siobhian, Burgess, Ariane, Callaghan, Stephanie, Chapman, Maggie, Coffey, Willie, Constance, Angela, Dey, Graeme, Don, Natalie, Doris, Bob, Dornan, James, Dunbar, Jackie, Ewing, Fergus, Fairlie, Jim, FitzPatrick, Joe, Gibson, Kenneth, Gilruth, Jenny, Gougeon, Mairi,...
Liam Byrne: When my right hon. Friend has those conversations with the Minister, will she ensure she also talks to the Minister for Security? He was Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee when it took evidence from a number of witnesses who explicitly called for a duty to verify addresses. That point was underlined in the Foreign Affairs Committee’s last report on illicit finance.
Liam Byrne: Could the Minister also clarify his target for compliance? I hope it is 100%, but if he could clarify that as well, I would be grateful.
Liam Byrne: I want to reinforce the last point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston. If we are going to equip the Minister with new powers, it is important that he tells the Committee, at this stage, how he intends to use them. The key question is: what is his deadline for ensuring that every single company on the register has fulfilled the obligations created by these clauses? Can he...
Liam Byrne: ...who have given their lives to tackling corruption and economic crime—and they were very clear, saying the objectives were too weak and needed to be stronger. I will set out the politics of this for the Minister, new in his role as he is. He is on the wrong side of the argument. He risks going into the debates we are about to have as someone who it is too easy for His Majesty’s...
Liam Byrne: Jason, you are a political scientist. Why are we in this position where we have such weakness? Why has our political system failed to address these weaknesses for so long?Q
Liam Byrne: Q Catherine, I think I speak for all of us in saluting you for the courage you have shown in revealing what you have revealed. How important was it to President Putin that people around him—his friends and allies—were able to move money so easily out of Russia through UK corporate structures?
Liam Byrne: Q I want to pursue that point for a moment. In the interests of good governance, would it not make sense to strengthen some of the obligations on directors to include, for example, a duty to take steps to prevent corruption in their organisations? We have similar measures on corruption; we do not have similar measures on economic crime and fraud.
Liam Byrne: Thank you, Ms Bardell. Starting with you, Angela—thank you so much for coming to give evidence. First, what are the perceptions around the world of London, in particular, as a centre for money laundering? How serious a problem do people abroad think that we have hereQ 213?
Liam Byrne: Duncan, I think I heard you say that UK corporate structures were the structure of choice for money laundering in what was the biggest money laundering scandal in Europe. That chimes with a piece of work you put out on 10 October, which said that there are more than 21,000 limited liability partnerships that have red flags—characteristics of organisations associated with economic...
Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many residential property sales were registered at HM Land Registry across (a) all properties and (b) new-build properties in each local authority in England and Wales in each of the last three years; and what proportion of those were to (i) UK companies, (ii) overseas companies, (iii) UK-based individuals and...
Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of proscribing the United Party of Russia under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Division number 1 For: Adam, George, Adam, Karen, Adamson, Clare, Allan, Alasdair, Arthur, Tom, Baillie, Jackie, Baker, Claire, Beattie, Colin, Bibby, Neil, Boyack, Sarah, Brown, Keith, Brown, Siobhian, Burgess, Ariane, Chapman, Maggie, Choudhury, Foysol, Clark, Katy, Coffey, Willie, Cole-Hamilton, Alex, Constance, Angela, Dey, Graeme, Don, Natalie, Doris, Bob, Dornan, James, Dunbar, Jackie,...
Stephen Farry: I am grateful to the hon. Member for his intervention. It did take the use of the d’Hondt method in councils to get diversity moving, although the council in question, which has been in the news somewhat—rather controversially—over the past number of months now has an Alliance mayor, so hopefully that is progress to an extent. It is important to make the point that we should cherish...
Liam Kerr: ...stunned to hear the cabinet secretary’s bizarre claims in Iceland that all is going swimmingly. If the minister genuinely wants to engage, will he join me and other local representatives in a formal meeting with the Belmont backers and Aberdeen City Council to thrash out a rescue for the Belmont cinema?
Liam McArthur: ...service in winter. I invite members who wish to participate in the debate to press their request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I call Jackie Baillie to speak to and move the motion for around six minutes.
Division number 1 For: Adam, George, Adam, Karen, Adamson, Clare, Allan, Alasdair, Arthur, Tom, Beattie, Colin, Brown, Keith, Brown, Siobhian, Burgess, Ariane, Callaghan, Stephanie, Chapman, Maggie, Coffey, Willie, Constance, Angela, Dey, Graeme, Don, Natalie, Doris, Bob, Dornan, James, Dunbar, Jackie, Ewing, Annabelle, Ewing, Fergus, Fairlie, Jim, FitzPatrick, Joe, Gibson, Kenneth, Gilruth,...
Margaret Hodge: Q Can I follow that up? I am grateful to Liam for raising this point. I think it is in scope. The case in relation to Chatham House is shocking, because of the cost to you as an organisation, which you will have to bear personally. It is particularly concerning that in the case of a journalist like Catherine Belton, whom we are seeing on Thursday, six or seven attempts were made; Charlotte...
Liam Byrne: We have registries of beneficial ownership for assets and property. We have to try to make it possible for law enforcement to connect companies, individuals and assets. Do you think we have the framework for connecting those three dots effectively?
Liam Byrne: Q Simon, is it the position of the National Police Chiefs’ Council that more resources are needed to tackle economic crime? Do you have a gut feel for the order of magnitude of the increase needed?