Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Application and Modification of Certain Enactments to Designated Staff of SOCA) Order 2006

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 28 February be approved [20th Report from the Joint Committee]. The noble Lord said: My Lords, organised crime is one of the biggest challenges faced by law enforcement in this country or, more precisely, by everyone in the country, because everyone pays the cost. Some pay directly, with their health and livelihoods harmed, and others pay indirectly, through increased costs for goods and services to cover the costs of fraud, or through their tax bills. As noble Lords will know, in the White Paper One Step Ahead, the Government made a commitment to create a new agency, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, to counter these threats. The new agency brings together staff from the former Customs and Excise, the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and the UK Immigration Service. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 established SOCA, which will assume its functions on 1 April. That Act specifies in Section 43 that the director-general may designate SOCA staff with powers, so long as they are capable, adequately trained and suitable to apply them. He may designate staff as people having one or more of the powers of a constable, the customs power of an officer of Revenue and Customs, and the powers of an immigration officer. Initially, SOCA will designate officers only with the powers that they have been operating in their precursor agency. So a SOCA officer who was a police officer with the National Crime Squad will be designated only with the powers of a constable. Over time, as people are trained in other powers, they will be designated with other powers. When using their designated powers, SOCA staff members rely on other pieces of legislation, such as the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. In many cases, those other pieces of legislation are framed in a way that means that they can be used by a SOCA staff member with the necessary designation, but, in some cases, there are features of those other pieces of legislation that need technical amendment before they can be applied by a SOCA officer, as set out in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. Section 52 of the Act provides that such amendments may be made through secondary legislation. The statutory instrument being considered today does exactly that; it uses the power in Section 52 to amend a small number of enactments so that the powers that they confer can be operated by SOCA officers. The Acts that it amends are the Immigration Act 1971, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. No amendments are needed to the Customs and Excise Management Act, because the powers that it provides can be operated by a designated SOCA officer without any amendment. In accordance with Section 52(6), the Secretary of State has consulted Scottish Ministers, who have indicated that they are content. I commend the draft order to the House. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 28 February be approved [20th Report from the Joint Committee].—(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)