Fact checkPoliticsPublished October 31, 2026

“Approximately £154.83 billion was lost to money laundering in the UK in the previous year.” — Dr Janet Bastiman. Our verdict: Unverified.

“Approximately £154.83 billion was lost to money laundering in the UK in the previous year.” — Dr Janet Bastiman. Our verdict: Unverified.
Dr Janet BastimanNews reportOctober 31, 2026

Dr Janet Bastiman made the claim on 31 October 2026, as reported by BBN Times in an article about John Healey's first Budget.

Our verdict

Unverified

We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute the claim that about £154.83 billion was lost to money laundering in the UK in the previous year. The figure appears only in the claimant's own statement, and no official UK body we checked publishes a total like this.

Know something that settles it? Send us evidence

What we found

The claim was made by Dr Janet Bastiman and reported by BBN Times. We checked whether any official source confirms the £154.83 billion figure. The Office for National Statistics publishes UK GDP figures, including a 1.4% annual rise in real GDP for 2025, but it does not publish a total for money laundering losses. The Basel AML Index 2025 looks at money laundering risk rankings rather than amounts of money lost. A UK government announcement on a new fraud disruption unit gives an official fraud loss estimate of £14 billion, which is far lower and covers fraud, not money laundering. Because no independent source in our research sets out a total UK money laundering loss for the year, and because we could not find the absolute GDP figure needed to check the 'more than 5% of GDP' part, we cannot say whether the claim is right or wrong.

The evidence

5 sources, all background: none settles the claim either way.

Contradict 0Support 0Background 5
When each source was published
ons.gov.uk · Nov 2025 · backgroundindex.baselgovernance.org · Dec 2025 · backgroundNov 2025Dec 2025
  • Background

    The BBN Times article reports Dr Janet Bastiman saying that approximately £154.83 billion was lost to money laundering in the UK in the previous year, and that this was more than 5% of GDP. This is the source of the claim, but it does not provide independent proof of the figure. [1]

  • Background

    The Office for National Statistics reports that UK real GDP increased by 1.4% annually in 2025. This gives a growth rate but not the absolute GDP value needed to test the 'more than 5% of GDP' claim. [2]

  • Background

    The Office for National Statistics publishes official UK GDP data for 2025, which would be the denominator for working out what share of GDP the claimed loss represents. It does not confirm the £154.83 billion figure itself. [3]

  • Background

    The Basel AML Index 2025 focuses on money laundering risk rankings rather than quantifying total monetary losses from money laundering in the UK. It does not support the £154.83 billion figure. [4]

  • Background

    A UK government announcement gives an official fraud loss estimate of £14 billion. This is much lower than the claimed £154.83 billion and relates to fraud rather than money laundering, so it does not confirm the claim. [5]

What we could not confirm

  • Whether approximately £154.83 billion was actually lost to money laundering in the UK in 2025, as no official UK body in our research publishes a total at this level.
  • Whether £154.83 billion represents more than 5% of UK GDP in 2025, because the absolute nominal GDP figure for that year was not available in the sources we checked.
  • The exact year meant by 'the previous year' in the claim, although we treated it as 2025 based on the dates of the evidence.

How we checked

We looked at the original BBN Times article, official Office for National Statistics GDP releases, the Basel AML Index 2025, and a UK government announcement on fraud. We searched for any official UK total for money laundering losses and for the absolute GDP figure needed to check the percentage claim, but found neither. We reviewed 5 relevant sources.

Sources

  1. [1]www.bbntimes.com · John Healey Turns to Banks and Targeted Tax Changes for Small Businesses and Pensioners in First Budget
  2. [2]ons.gov.uk · GDP quarterly national accounts, UK - Office for National Statistics
  3. [3]ons.gov.uk · GDP first quarterly estimate, UK - Office for National Statistics · November 13, 2025
  4. [4]index.baselgovernance.org · 14th Public Edition Global money ... - Basel AML Index 2025 · December 1, 2025
  5. [5]gov.uk · New disruption unit launched in crackdown on fraud

Help us check this claim

We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute this claim. If you know of an official record, dataset, transcript or report that settles it, send us the link. We review every submission and update this fact check when the evidence changes the picture.

Measured Take updates fact checks when new evidence emerges. Corrections are noted on the page.

All fact checks