House of Commons
Parliament

Economic Secretary to the Treasury Harriet Baldwin says she's "very grateful" to Charles Walker for putting a series of stories on the record that she will be able to use when talking with banks about the issue.

She says the UK's money laundering rules are designed to fight corruption, illegal activity and financing of terror groups.

Current laws require that banks carry out checks on politicians, she says, and it is important to do so because of the scale of political corruption elsewhere in the world.

But she says the rules should not stop MPs from "gaining or maintaining" a UK bank account, and that the government is working with the banks to make sure they can do so. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbench peer Lord Hylton has moved amendment 134B which has a similar aim to Lord Rosser's amendment.

Amendment 134B would allow overseas domestic workers in the UK to change their employer and be able to apply to be joined in the United Kingdom by their dependants - as well as other provisions.

Lord Hylton argues that his amendment would provide protection for "highly vulnerable people" that is "urgently needed", adding that further delays on the matter would be "quite unacceptable". 

House of Lords
Parliament

After a quick to-and-fro between Baroness Hamwee and the minister where they agree that discussions on this will continue away from the floor of the House, clause 12 is passed.

Debate now moves on to amendment 133 which relates to protection from slavery for overseas domestic workers.

The amendment has been tabled by Labour peers Lord Rosser and Lord Kennedy and Southwark; crossbencher Lord Alton of Liverpool; and Liberal Democrat Baroness Hamwee.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Charles Walker is introducing his adjournment debate on anti-money laundering rules.

He's particularly concerned with rules for "domestic politically exposed persons", which he says banks are interpreting inappropriately. 

He says the rules affect both MPs and their families. He cites the example of an MP's 85-year-old father who was interviewed by his bank for proof of his wealth, despite the fact he'd been a customer for 50 years, and an MP interviewed about 25 years of bank transactions.

Tory MP Heather Wheeler intervenes to say banks have shut two of her accounts after reclassifying her as "high risk".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Lord Lucas asks the minister why the clause mentions that a person must only employ an illegal immigrant "once" when he has been saying that the new powers only apply to "repeat offenders".

Lord Ashton of Hyde responds that the line of the clause that Lord Lucas has identified is only part of the consideration for the use of a closure order. The minister says the closure notice outlined in clause 12 can only come into effect "if, and only if" a person has previous convictions with illegal working.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire Andrew Bridgen presents his petition on the BBC licence fee.

He says his petitioners find the BBC's content "outdated and biased" and do not want to fund it.

House of Commons
Parliament

Due to the cross party consensus on the issue the Proceeds of Crime statutory instruments pass without a vote.

House of Lords
Parliament

Government minister Lord Ashton of Hyde responds to the debate by saying that the powers laid out in clause 12 are not going to be used widely but are for the most "egregious violations".

Lord Ashton says the new powers will be used where previous convictions have not changed employer behaviour.

The minister also says the government feels the bill contains "appropriate judicial oversight for the use of these powers and sufficient safeguards and remedies for those who feel they have been treated unfairly " 

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Jack Dromey says his party supports the new measures and agrees they are not controversial.

He says the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act was borne of a cross-party belief that "crime should not pay". But he says at first the Act didn't have quite the success that ministers had hoped. 

Often "the Mr Bigs of the world got away with it", he says, so regular updating of the act is welcome.

He says his party will support all five measures.

House of Lords
Parliament

Baroness Hamwee withdraws her amendment and is now speaking against clause 12 which gives immigration officers the power to close an employer's premises for up to 48 hours if they suspect illegal working to be taking place. 

She describes the clause as "a sledgehammer" and adds that if anyone should be allowed to wield a sledgehammer "it should be the courts not the executive".

She worries that if a mistake is made an business owner's reputation could be considerably damaged.

Home Office Minister John Hayes calls the SI's "relatively uncontroversial" and "not partisan".

He says the SI's "give officers important new tools" to recover criminally obtained assets.

House of Lords
Parliament

Concerning licensing for taxi and minicab drivers, Lord Bates explains that the authorities cannot grant licences of an unspecified duration.

It would therefore not be possible to grant licences that coincided with a worker's leave to remain in the UK.

He tells peers that if a licence holder is granted further leave to remain they will be able to obtain a renewed licence.

House of Commons
Parliament

The House now begins debate on a series of statutory instruments relating to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Statutory instruments are used to alter an act without bringing forward a new bill.

House of Commons
Parliament

Due to the cross party consensus on the bill, it receives its third reading without the need for a vote. It will now go back to the Lords for the consideration of amendments before receiving royal assent.

House of Lords
Parliament

Liberal Democrat Baroness Hamwee proposes an amendment which would mean a person's license to drive taxis or minicabs would coincide with their leave to remain.

The government's bill currently states that a license expires "on or before" a persons leave to remain in the UK comes to an end. 

Baroness Hamwee questions why the government wants to end someone's license before their leave to remain expires. 

She seeks to remind the peers that "we are dealing with people's livelihoods here".

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Anne McLaughlin joins the cross party consensus in commending the bill. 

She says she has some concerns about the issue of poppers, as well as there being no distinction in the bill between people who buy online and people who buy from dealers "down a dark alley", as she puts it. 

But she says that, in the main, her party supports the bill.

House of Lords
Parliament

After the excitement of the trade union motions, peers now turn to the Immigration Bill and a group of technical amendments which seek to prevent illegal working in pubs and bars. 

The government has said that a significant proportion of illegal working happens in places where alcohol is sold. 

The bill therefore amends existing legislation to ensure that a licence cannot be issued to an illegal worker. 

The bill also gives powers to immigration officers to enter premises selling alcohol to assess if illegal working is taking place.

House of Commons
Parliament

Minister Mike Penning says he's "enormously proud" of a bill that will "save lives". Most of all, he says, it means that many people who previously thought of "legal highs" as safe will no longer think so.

Labour's Lyn Brown, shadow home office minister, agrees that the most important impact of the bill will increased awareness that legal highs are not safe. She also says she believes the input from the Labour side of both the Commons and the Lords has produced a much better bill.

House of Commons
Parliament

Amendment 5 is defeated by 309 to 228, a majority of 81.

That means that poppers are banned as part of the bill.

The House then moves on to third reading stage of the bill. Minister Mike Penning says shepherding the bill has been "an experience".

He says the bill is "not perfect, but an awful lot better than what we had before".