To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many supervised company formation agents HMRC visited from (a) 1 Jan 2018 to 31 Dec 2018 and (b) 1 Jan 2019 to 31 Dec 2019.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of company formation agents that should be registered for supervision but are not have been identified by HMRC since 8 May 2019.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HMRC full time equivalent staff are tasked with identifying company formation agents that should be registered for supervision but are not.

HMRC supervises businesses in nine sectors under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs), including those Trust or Company Service Providers (TCSPs) not supervised by other bodies. HMRC does not publish information relating to targeting of supervisory visits in particular sectors. Such information could be used by criminals to aid their efforts to attempt to launder money or finance terrorism.

HM Treasury publishes aggregate details of HMRC’s supervision activity in its annual “Anti-money laundering and counter terrorist finance supervision report”.

Since 8 May 2019, HMRC has not identified any company formation agents who should be but are not registered with HMRC.

HMRC’s Anti Money Laundering Supervision team employs 16 full time equivalent staff to identify businesses that should be registered with HMRC under the MLRs but are not. These ‘policing the perimeter’ staff are not designated to specific sectors.