Anti-money laundering proposals ‘uninspired and insipid’, say MPs

theguardian.com:

Law Commission proposals to make directors more accountable for economic crimes at the companies they oversee have been condemned as a “thundering disappointment”.

MPs from the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on anti-corruption and responsible tax criticised the proposals for England and Wales, published on Friday, as “unambitious, uninspired and insipid”, saying the Law Commission had excluded essential changes that would have made it easier to punish companies and directors for failing to prevent money laundering.

The review was also criticised for concluding that the rules could be left in their current state, listing it as one of the “10 options for reform”.

“It would be a travesty if the government were to take this report as a green light to do nothing,” the campaign group Spotlight on Corruption said.

The Commission’s role is to recommend updates to the law, ensuring that it remains fair, modern and simple. The review of corporate criminal liability was commissioned in November 2020, but was originally part of pledges made by the former prime minister David Cameron after his anti-corruption summit in 2016.

Prof Sarah Green, the law commissioner for commercial and common law, said the recommendations were designed to avoid putting undue burdens on companies. “Our options for reforming the law on corporate criminal liability are designed to strike a balance between ensuring that the law works well to punish corporate entities when misconduct is committed on their behalf, whilst avoiding a new suite of burdensome administrative requirements for businesses,” Green said.

However, Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the APPG on anti-corruption and responsible tax, said the review was a “thundering disappointment”