Corrupt insiders and criminal networks will be brought to justice by a powerful new specialist police unit, professional enablers will be targeted and tougher safeguards will be introduced across the public sector as key pillars in the government’s sweeping new anti-corruption strategy.

One of the centrepieces of the government’s strategy is a plan to target professional enablers – the ‘corrupt lawyers, accountants and bankers’ – who help dirty money flow, the government said. ‘The UK will clamp down on rogue actors, disrupt dirty money and restore integrity in public life.’ 

Taking a very robust position, the government stressed: ‘While the vast majority of firms operate within the law and take action against criminality and attempted criminality, a minority subset of financial and professional services firms known as “professional enablers” play a key role in helping corrupt and other malign actors to access these services and enable their wrongdoing.

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