Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 09 March 2022
I rise to offer the support of the Scottish Liberal Democrats for the Government’s motion and Michael Marra’s amendment.
A terrible human tragedy is unfolding before our eyes. I am sure that each of us was deeply moved by the heroic words of President Zelensky when he addressed the Palace of Westminster last night. Those words reaffirmed to us all that we must continue to stand with the people of Ukraine and do everything that we can to sanction Putin for the destruction that he is causing. I associate myself with the remarks of Stephen Kerr: it is Putin—not the people of Russia—who is causing this. It is his regime. We must not lose sight of that.
Although I am pleased that the UK Government has introduced the bill, and at speed, I am disappointed that it has taken six years and this war—the illegal invasion of Ukraine—before the Government decided to take action to put an end to Kremlin-linked oligarchs’ laundering of their dirty money in our country.
Last month, Transparency International UK revealed that, since 2016, property worth £1.5 billion has been bought by Russians who were accused of corruption or links to the Kremlin. It also highlighted that more than 2,000 companies that are registered in the UK and its overseas territories, protectorates and Crown dependencies were found to be utilised in 48 Russian money-laundering and corruption cases, which involved more than £82 billion of funds that were diverted by rigged procurement, bribery, embezzlement and unlawful acquisition of state assets.
Those numbers are stark and eye-watering, and it is clear that something must be done. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill goes far enough in ridding us of those links to Russia, not least because there are measures in the bill that allow the UK Government to exempt an individual from declaring on the register in the interests of the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom. I am proud of my Westminster colleagues in the Liberal Democrats for tabling amendments that would close such loopholes, which will undoubtedly allow exploitation by oligarchs, and I support all the work that they are doing to get the bill right.
That loophole is not the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ only concern about the bill. As our former colleague in the chamber, Andy Wightman, pointed out over the weekend, the Scottish regulations that will come into force next month go back only as far as December 2014. That is not good enough. We must not presume that we in Scotland have been exposed to the corruption that comes with Russian oligarchs only for that short time. Just last week, Ross Greer highlighted that Vladimir Lisin, a man whose name can be found on a 2018 US Treasury Department list of senior political figures and oligarchs in Russia, has reportedly owned since 1985 a Perthshire estate that has received nearly £700,000 in state agricultural subsidies.
Under the new rules, no such individuals or companies will have to appear on the new register, so I am deeply concerned that, if no action is taken, people such as Lisin will be able to continue to own land in Scotland without proper scrutiny and—if need be—penalty. That is why Scottish Liberal Democrats agree with Michael Marra and Labour that part 1 of the bill should apply to all land that is owned and registered in Scotland, regardless of when it was acquired. By not extending the regulations so that properties that were bought before December 2014 are also included in the new register, we allow ourselves to still have ties to Russian oligarchs at a time when our clear message should be that we utterly condemn the actions of President Putin and that, as far as possible, Scotland will have no ties to his regime.
We stand in a building that was designed with transparency in mind. When it comes to instruments of legislation, such as the one that we are discussing tonight, we must ensure that transparency is at their very heart. I fear that, should the new regulations not be amended in the way that we have discussed, its provisions will allow those who have ties to the brutal Putin regime to prosper still in our country.
18:27