On 31 July 2025, the Home Office updated its guidance on the exemptions from the money laundering obligations and money laundering reporting obligations in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA).

The purpose of the guidance is to set out the government position on exemptions relating to the money laundering obligations in the POCA as amended by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) (Threshold Amount) Order 2022, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, and the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) (Threshold Amount) (Amendment) Order 2025.

A person may be liable for one of the three principal money laundering offences under sections 327-329 of POCA where they deal in certain ways with criminal property.

There are certain exemptions for certain businesses in the regulated sector (as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 9 to POCA) in certain circumstances to the principal money laundering offences as set out in those sections:

  • The operating an account exemption, which applies to a deposit-taking body, electronic money institution or payment institution, and can be found in s.327(2C); s.328(5); s329(2C).
  • The paying away exemption, which applies to persons carrying on business in the regulated sector and can be found in: s.327(2D); s.328(6); s.329(2D).
  • The mixed property exemption which applies to persons carrying on business in the regulated sector and can be found in s.327(2F)-(2G); s.328(8-9), s329(2F) -(2G).

Where these exemptions do not apply, a person can avoid committing money laundering offences by first submitting an authorised disclosure (a Defence Against Money Laundering (DAML) suspicious activity report (SAR)) to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and receiving consent or deemed consent to proceed.

The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) (Threshold Amount) (Amendment) Order 2025 increased the threshold amount to £3,000 for both the operating an account exemption and paying away exemption. The threshold amount is the value of criminal property below which a regulated business can carry out a transaction without submitting a DAML.