The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee has published its fifteenth report of the 2016-17 Parliamentary Sessions, which includes an outline of the Committee’s consideration of the European Commission’s proposed Directive that will amend the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (MLD5).

In particular, the report refers to a letter from Simon Kirby MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury, dated 20 October 2016. In this letter Mr Kirby states that the Government has concluded that the draft Directive would trigger the UK’s Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) opt-in in relation to the provisions relating to sharing of data from registers between Financial Intelligence Units and law enforcement authorities, which it considers falls within the scope of Article 87 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The Minister adds in his letter that:

• in line with its position on the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, the Government considers that sharing data for law enforcement purposes is one of the predominant purposes of the measure, and therefore that this is a partial JHA measure;
• the Government will be taking an opt-in decision in ‘the usual way’; and
• unless the legal basis is changed, the Government would consider the UK bound by the proposal on adoption of an opt-in.

The Minister also states that he will update the Committee on the Government’s decision to opt-in shortly

View House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee considers MLD5, 1 November 2016