Rooting out dirty money from our politics
Spotlight has long called for UK political parties to take dirty money in political finance seriously. We have advocated for parties to undertake proper ‘know your donor’ (KYD) checks on…
At Spotlight, we work hard to make a difference. Here you’ll find stories of how we have used forensic research, patient advocacy and agile communications to make progress towards our objectives.
Spotlight has long called for UK political parties to take dirty money in political finance seriously. We have advocated for parties to undertake proper ‘know your donor’ (KYD) checks on…
In July 2025 the government announced that its long-trailed Ethics and Integrity Commission would be formed on the foundations of the existing Committee on Standards in Public Life, with the…
In July 2021, we published a briefing, Red Carpet for Dirty Money: The UK’s Golden Visa Regime – which was covered in The Times – looking at the ongoing risks…
After several years campaigning to ensure the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into bribes on Saudi defence contracts was not derailed by political interference, we were delighted when it did finally…
There have long been calls for greater senior executive accountability for economic crime but not much research to show the scale of the UK’s enforcement gap for senior executives. In…
Excluding companies that engage in wrongdoing or provide shoddy services on public contracts is a crucial way to protect taxpayers’ money and to encourage better corporate behaviour. However, the UK…
From its title you might expect that the UK’s offence of misconduct in public life would be well suited to bringing to book politicians and other officials who abuse their…
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine led to a large expansion in the use of sanctions by the government, but also consumed most of its sanctions capacity. We have worked with…
Spotlight’s campaign to beef up anti-money laundering supervision of professionals who enable dirty money achieved a crucial milestone with the October 2025 announcement that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will…
Spotlight has always placed great emphasis on founding our policy recommendations on a solid evidence base. That’s why our researchers delve deep into data archives in search of the crucial…
Spotlight works hard to make sure that the courts are as transparent as possible so that the public can understand and scrutinise how effectively the justice system is operating. We…
The victims of corruption – whether it be communities blighted by shoddy corrupt contracts, or people subject to autocratic regimes sustained through money laundering schemes using the UK financial system…
Even the best anti-corruption laws are useless if they aren’t enforced. That’s why Spotlight continues to advocate robustly for increased funding of the UK’s economic crime fighting agencies. From our…
The UK is, at last, poised to enact meaningful corporate criminal liability reforms. Three years ago, there was little realistic probability of the government ever introducing corporate liability reform. We…
