Accountants and tax advisers accounted for 0.7% of the total number of SARs received at 6,053. The majority of these were reported by accountants with just 92 from tax advisers.

The figure was 3.2% higher than 2021-22 when there were 5,863, but was significantly up from 2020-21 at 25.5% higher when there were 4,300 reports, according to the UK Financial Intelligence Unit, part of the National Crime Agency.

Richard Burger, partner at WilmerHale said: ‘In the collective fight to combat UK financial crime, SARs still remain a valuable tool; the drop in filed SARs is not indicative of a downturn in suspected cases of money laundering but more quality over quantity reporting.’

The sector with the highest number of SARs was banks and financial institutions accounting for 65.3% (561,610) of the total number. This was 11.9% lower than the previous year when there were 637,776 (70.8%).