§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when her Department intends to introduce legislation on the consumer credit market in the UK. [157215]
§ Mr. SutcliffeOn 8 December 2003 we published a White Paper setting out our proposals on the consumer credit market. This was the culmination of the first major review of the regulation of this market in 30 years. The regulatory proposals in the White Paper will be implemented by a combination of Statutory Instruments, which will be brought forward during the course of this year with the first coming into force in October 2004, and a Bill, which will be introduced when parliamentary time is available.
§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps her Department is taking to promote the reporting by financial services companies of suspected cases of money laundering. [157216]
§ Mr. SutcliffeHM Treasury and the Home Office are jointly responsible for the UK's money laundering reporting regime. Financial service s companies, along with other businesses in the "regulated sector", are required to have in place formal systems for deterring, detecting and reporting money laundering and to train their staff accordingly. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2003 substantially strengthened these requirements, for example by making it a criminal offence to fail to make a disclosure where there are reasonable grounds to know or suspect money laundering.
This Department works closely with the Treasury and Home Office in supporting this regime.