Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many accountancy (a) practitioners and (b) firms are supervised by (i) HM Revenue and Customs and (ii) each of the other accountancy bodies; and how many such practitioners and firms have been (A) investigated for suspected money laundering and (B) struck off as a result of such investigations.

Mr David Gauke

There are 15 supervisors of the accountancy service provider (ASP) sector in the United Kingdom, including HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

13,131 ASPs are registered with HMRC for anti-money laundering supervision. The professional accountancy bodies listed in Schedule 3 to the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 between them supervise 32,069 firms and individuals. Whilst the statistics vary between bodies as to the number of individuals supervised compared to firms, 18,872 of the 32,069 have been identified as individuals.

HMRC does not record statistics for its investigations in a way that enables figures relating to ASPs to be separately identified. HMRC does not hold data about practitioners and firms investigated or struck off by other supervisory bodies.