Reduce Money laundering and recover more criminal assets

The first outcome of the plan is to reduce money laundering and recover more criminal assets. The 2020 National Risk Assessment (NRA) of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing identified that the scale of the threat is growing across several areas and becoming more complex, as criminals exploit available technology to communicate, commit crimes, and hide their profits.

Through the ECP2, the government are developing an improved end-to-end response to tackling money laundering, from limiting the abuse of UK corporate structures to the recovery of criminal assets.

Combat Kleptocracy and drive down sanctions evasion

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK and its partners have significantly increased the use of complex financial and other economic sanctions. The invasion has also highlighted the already-growing threat posed by kleptocracies.

Sanctions require complex implementation, enforcement and operational compliance, involving both the public and private sectors working closely together.

Actions across the ECP2 to improve the whole system response to economic crime will address the broader systemic vulnerabilities that can enable the evasion of sanctions and allow corrupt actors from other jurisdictions, wherever that may be, to hide money in the UK.

Cut fraud

Fraud accounts for 40% of all crimes nationwide and in February 2023, the government announced that fraud would be reclassified as a national security threat.

The ECP2 supports the National Fraud Strategy which aims to cut fraud and restore public faith in the response with the following objectives:

• Pursue fraudsters, disrupting their activities and bringing them to justice more often and quicker
• Block frauds at source by dramatically reducing the number of fraud and scam communications that get through to the public
• Empower people to recognise, avoid and report frauds and equip them to deal easily and appropriately with frauds that do get through

The ECP2 also aims to modernise the response to and reduce the impact of public sector fraud and has created the Public Sector Fraud Authority to address this.

You can find a detailed explanation of the Actions of the ECP2 here2