Suspicious Activity Reports
Where a regulated company – that is one subject to the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (MLRs), such as a bank, accountancy firm, legal firm or estate agent – suspects that a transaction relates to money laundering, they must submit details to the NCA to avoid committing an offence under section 330 of POCA. This is known as a "Suspicious Activity Report" (SAR). SARs are a critical intelligence resource. They provide important opportunities for law enforcement agencies to intervene to disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing, and build investigations against those involved. Over 381,000 SARs were received by the NCA in the period September 2014 – October 2015.
	Under section 335 of POCA, the SARs regime currently allows the NCA to allow or refuse consent to the person making an authorised disclosure (the reporter) to undertake activity involving property suspected of being the proceeds of crime – these are consent SARs. 14,672 of the SARs received in 2014/15 were consent SARs. Where the NCA refuses consent, the regulated company loses the statutory defence provided to the money laundering offences (s327 – s329 of POCA) for a period of 31 days from the date of the refusal. This has the effect of preventing the activity from going ahead during that period. This is known as the ‘moratorium period’. The purpose of the moratorium period is to allow investigators time to gather evidence to determine whether further action, such as restraint of the funds, should take place. This period, which is not currently renewable, often does not allow sufficient time to develop the evidence, particularly where it must be sought from overseas through mutual legal assistance. The Act amends this provision to allow for extensions of up to 31 days, totalling a period of no more than 186 days from the end of the initial 31 day moratorium period.
	In order to enhance the effectiveness of this regime, the Act also creates a power for the NCA to seek an order compelling further information from any person in the regulated sector (as defined by Schedule 9 of POCA), following receipt of a SAR; or where they have received a request from a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in another country. This power is required to allow the NCA to perform its analytical functions. The decision of the court would be appealable in the normal way.
	There are appropriate exemptions relating to the provision of legally privileged information. Any information provided would be given immunity from any restriction on the disclosure of information, such as confidentiality sections in contracts or the law of confidence. The compelled information could not be used in criminal proceedings against the person who made the statement.