Economic crime is a significant threat to our national security and to the prosperity of the UK. To effectively prevent, investigate and disrupt economic crime, it is vital that public bodies and private sector entities are able to share and exploit data. Where an organisation has access only to its own information, it is unable to spot criminal networks operating across sectors, businesses and jurisdictions.
In recent years, Government, law enforcement and the private sector have made significant progress to enhance information-sharing capabilities, having launched in 2015 the UK’s joint money laundering investigations taskforce, which has evolved into a multi-layered capability that now includes public-private threat groups and time-limited cells that address specific economic crimes. More recently, also underpinned by section 7 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, the National Crime Agency and financial sector partners have created a dynamic data-led arm of public-private partnership that integrates banking data with law enforcement data to target poly-criminality, known as data fusion.
However, it is clear that the legislative landscape remains complex. Regulations operate differently across sectors, there are operational challenges in joining together separate datasets and, more broadly, there is often a lack of confidence and trust to share information due to the threat of legal challenge.
That is why I am pleased to announce that the Government are today publishing a call for evidence on economic crime information sharing. This call for evidence focuses on identifying legal, operational and cultural barriers to effective data sharing for the purposes of tackling crime, as well as opportunities to strengthen the system through reform.
I invite individuals and organisations to share their views with Government, including law enforcement, regulators, prosecutors, businesses in the anti-money laundering regulated sector, technology platforms, telecoms providers, online marketplaces, and others that hold valuable data relevant to economic crime threats.
A copy of the call for evidence will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on gov.uk.
[HCWS1382]