Recommendation 17

In May 2020, the Bank of England shared information with the Treasury that it had raised concerns with the National Crime Agency about Wyelands Bank. Wyelands Bank is a part of the GFG Alliance which was a significant Greensill client.48 The Treasury told us that information about a possible criminal investigation was “among the most tightly restricted information” in order to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation and that it was unable to share this information. It asserted that, as the information was about Wyelands bank, not Greensill, and that the former was not applying to the Bank for accreditation, it considered this “a completely separate entity and a separate exercise”.49 It explained that the Bank of England wrote to it on 15 May 2020 with “more detailed, specific information” and that it had subsequently shared this information with the Department on 19 May 2020 as it knew that the Department was in discussion with Liberty Steel, another part of the GFG Alliance, regarding a request for direct government support, and it judged that the information was relevant to those discussions.50 However, this information was not shared with the Bank, as both the Treasury and the Department deemed it not relevant to the accreditation of Greensill. The Treasury explained that it treats sensitive information about companies carefully, in order to avoid adverse impact from its inadvertent disclosure.51 We noted that the sharing of information is a critical part of protecting taxpayers’ money. We therefore asked the Treasury if, given the legislation covering the sharing of information, there was any information that it could have shared that would have been helpful to the Bank or elsewhere in government. The Treasury told us it believed that it had shared all the information it should have.52 44 C&AG’s Report, para 1.15 45 Q 139 46 Q 139 47 Q 1 48 Q 3, Treasury Committee, Lessons from Greensill Capital, Sixth Report of Session 2021–22, HC 151, 14 July 2021 49 Q 3 5