But as a first step, government should review spending rules which mean law enforcement agencies routinely have to cede money they recover from criminals if they don’t spend it by the end of the year. Instead, this money should be reinvested in further enforcement efforts.

💷 The key question is whether there will be enough resourcing behind the AMLAR strategy for it to make a difference. It’s doubtful that the ECL, welcome though it is, is enough compared to the scale of the problem & the chronic resourcing challenges facing the UK’s economic crime fighting agencies.

🚨 The budget also announced the gov will develop a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery #AMLAR Strategy. With asset recovery rates flatlining, businesses compliance with AML rules still far too low, and a visit by the Financial Action Task Force #FATF on the horizon, this is urgently needed.

🤏 It’s worth remembering however that this only represents at most 0.1% of firms’ revenues and is small change compared to the £100bn the National Crime Agency estimates could realistically be laundered in/through the UK each year.

🏦 Companies with £1bn+ revenue will now have to pay £1m/year, doubled from £500k. Firms with revenues between £500m-£1bn see the steepest increase in annual payments, from £36k to £500k. This will increase the £100m a year levy to £110m by 2027/28 and £115m by 2028/29.

👆 Today’s appeal provides an opportunity for the High Court to weigh in on questions about the conduct of lawyers in such cases. Stay tuned, as we’ll be following this case every step of the way…

❓ Despite these findings, the SDT explicitly stated that this was *not* a SLAPPs case, leaving, to our mind, some confusion about what professional misconduct is characteristic of a SLAPP.

✉️ The Tribunal found that Hurst’s labelling of legal correspondence improperly sought to keep Dan Neidle from disclosing any information about the correspondence. Hurst’s ‘implicit threat’ of legal action regarding the consequences of publication was also found to be misleading.

‼️Hurst’s case was the first brought by the SRA about a lawyer’s conduct in relation to allegedly abusive tactics to shut down public scrutiny (i.e. a ‘SLAPP’), making it an important milestone even though the SRA’s case was narrowly focused on Hurst’s improper use of legal labels.

📝 Hurst contacted Dan Neidle, seeking a retraction of Neidle’s allegation that Zahawi had lied when giving an explanation about his tax affairs, and a prohibition on any publication of, or reference to, the correspondence from Hurst.

💷 The case followed a #SLAPPs complaint by @danneidle.bsky.social, of Tax Policy Associates, who in 2022 published his investigations into Zahawi’s tax affairs. Zahawi was eventually sacked as Conservative Party Chair for failing to disclose that HMRC were looking into his taxes.

Government should create a ringfenced Economic Crime Fighting Fund, recycling recovered criminal cash into enforcement.

And it must finally deliver publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers in Britain’s OT's, so investigators can follow the money and expose corruption.

💰2. Recycle cash seized from criminals back into a Economic Crime Fighting Fund for law enforcement to create a virtuous cycle, at no extra cost to the taxpayer.

🌴3. Deliver publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers in the Overseas Territories so investigators can 'follow the money.'