My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles, for doing this. I have to say that I am growing in awe of the noble Baroness and her drafting skills. Should there be any vacancy among the clerks in the Public Bill Office, they will be quite impressed by the notion that the noble Baroness can draw up this technical amendment in one hour—it is very impressive indeed.
My noble friend Lord Patten perhaps did the noble Baroness a disservice by saying that it was a “probing probing amendment”; I think it was a “very probing probing amendment”, which the record should capture. Having read through her handiwork in the drafting, I think she did not do herself justice. The amendment certainly provides a welcome opportunity—which is, I know, its purpose—for us to put on the record some further remarks about how we see this particular issue being addressed.
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Amendment 69D recognises that powers of the type contained in the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill are required to ensure that the money laundering regulations 2017 operate properly after the UK has left the EU. Noble Lords will be aware that Clause 7 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, as introduced, provides the Government with the powers to make regulations that the relevant Minister,
“considers appropriate to prevent, remedy or mitigate”,
deficiencies in the retained EU law arising from the UK ceasing to be a member of the EU. This power, taken with the fact that the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill will preserve EU law as in force directly before the UK ceases to be a member of the European Union, will ensure the functioning of the UK statute book immediately after the UK leaves the EU. I do not see any reason why the powers proposed through Amendment 69D should sit in this Bill rather than in their natural home, which is Clause 7 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.
Additionally, although this amendment contains reference to the majority of the deficiencies that have been identified within the money laundering regulations 2017 as a result of the UK’s future withdrawal from the European Union, it does not contain reference to all such deficiencies. I am sure that this was not the intention of the noble Baronesses, Lady Bowles and Lady Kramer, in drafting the amendment, but the amendment would nevertheless limit the ability of the
Government to ensure the continued effective operation of the money laundering regulations 2017 after the UK ceases to be a member of the EU. Accordingly, I do not agree at this stage with Amendment 69D—which will not come as a surprise to the noble Baroness, as I do not think that she intended it for that purpose.
However, let me address some of the points which were raised during the course of this short debate. First, my noble friend Lord Patten referred to the blacklisting decision taken by the European Commission yesterday. All jurisdictions have committed to reforms and have until the end of 2018 at the latest to implement these in terms of the EU blacklist, and it is important that they do so. It will be for the EU Code of Conduct Group to monitor the commitments taken by jurisdictions and to consider whether these are being fulfilled. The list will be updated to reflect this, as agreed by all member states, and we are fully supportive of this process.
In terms of the grey list mentioned by my noble friend, there is no grey list. The Council conclusions from yesterday’s meeting set out those jurisdictions that are being cleared, have made commitments and have been deemed by the EU Code of Conduct Group to be co-operative jurisdictions. This is not a grey list as such, but a demonstration of the positive commitments that over 30 jurisdictions have taken to address the concerns of the EU Code of Conduct Group. The commitments made by these jurisdictions will benefit all member states in helping to protect our tax bases and being able better to tackle tax evasion.