HC Deb 23 July 2004 vol 424 cc858-9W
Mr. Cousins

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many deposit-taking institutions reported possible money laundering offences to the National Criminal Intelligence Service in(a) 2001, (b) 2002 and (c) 2003; and what proportion of the total disclosures and reports were made by the top 10 sources of such reports in each year. [185590]

Caroline Flint

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 imposes an obligation upon individuals and business in the regulated sector undertaking relevant business such as accepting deposits, to make disclosures to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) where they have knowledge, suspicion or reasonable grounds to know or suspect that another person is engaged in money laundering These disclosures are commonly known as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).

The information requested, based on disclosures input on to the NCIS database, is set out in the table.

2001 2002 2003
Total Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)

from deposit taking banks

19,355 36,694 63,601
Percentage of above SARs from top 10 bank

sources

82.29 91.57 90.38
Total SARs from building societies 2,294 3,704 5,210
Percentage of above SARs from top 10

building society sources

74.28 66.79 66.55
Total SARs from deposit takers 21,649 40,398 68,811
Percentage of above SARs from top 10

deposit taking sources

79.56 83.61 83.76