Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 7
Tenth Report - Countries at crossroads: UK engagement in Central Asia
Published 10 Nov 2023
Paragraph 36
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee The UK’s engagement in Central Asia All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that the Government: a) Offers assistance to each of the Central Asian countries in building their domestic capacity to tackle corruption and money laundering as a contribution to their economic development. b) Encourages the National Crime Agency to send agents to liaise with Central Asian governments in developing cooperation on Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWO) and on bringing back stolen public assets from the UK. c) Ensures that Oversees Territory governments comply with the extended deadline of implementing public registers of beneficial ownership with full and free access to company data, not limited to single entries. There should be no further deadline extensions. d) Imposes Global Anti-Corruption sanctions designations on those whose origins of wealth can be tied to assets they have illegally seized and apply the Global Forum on Asset Recovery’s Principles for Disposition and Transfer of Confiscated Stolen Assets in Corruption Cases (the GFAR Principles). e) Ensures the Transatlantic Taskforce to tackle kleptocracy and Russian sanctions evasion, established in 2022, provides a special focus on sanctions evasion in Central Asia, by ensuring that the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updates Parliament with a special report on the action taken.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Tenth Report - Countries at crossroads: UK engagement in Central Asia (HC 1158), paragraph 36, 10 November 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 25 January 2024 (deadline 10 January 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with the Committee on the value of closer engagement with Central Asia but responds "Partially Agree" to most recommendations, and "Disagree" to two on illicit finance and sanctions.
- On a Central Asia 5+UK meeting, it agrees and is "exploring opportunities for a Ministerial CA5+UK meeting in 2024", considering the format and agenda.
- On a Diplomatic Academy, it partially agrees, saying it would require "a significant investment in resources" and that the FCDO International Academy's resources are "not currently sufficient"; it will continue to consider informal ways of sharing expertise.
- It disagrees that the UK facilitates kleptocracy through under-enforcement, citing the Economic Crime Acts and a new National Crime Agency Combatting Kleptocracy Cell.
- It disagrees that the REPO Task Force should focus on sanctions evasion in Central Asia, saying it does not have the mandate for regionally focused work, though the UK is prioritising the issue through other channels.