Serious Crime Bill [HL]

My Lords, there is no doubt that serious and organised crime has a devastating effect on many of our communities, not only in our cities but in our countryside, too. There is also no doubt that serious and organised crime has a devastating effect on many of our individual citizens and societal values as well as on our nation's economy. Drug trafficking, crimes of a financial nature and people trafficking—all relatively newer crimes—create misery, fear, and trepidation not only among those who are directly affected, which is bad enough, but among a wider group of law-abiding citizens who witness the effects of such atrocities. Too many criminals believe they cannot be touched by the law as currently written. Increasingly, personal identities are stolen and the lives of the victims are opened up to worry, frustration and disruption. Hard drugs are smuggled into our country and sold on to addicts whose lives are ruined by their effects, as are the lives of their families. The vulnerable of many nations, who often believe they will be improving their lot in life, seek assistance from hardened crooks who use them as prostitutes and virtual slaves, trafficking them across borders without mercy. Those are among the crimes that have instigated this Bill, which, unlike the two previous speakers, I support. As the Minister pointed out, the Bill introduces new powers to tackle serious crime. It outlines a civil order that places conditions on both individuals and organisations to prevent the serious crime which they plan. It allows and encourages data sharing between public sector organisations and between public and private sectors. It introduces new offences aimed at those who encourage crime and those who assist crime, holding them responsible and accountable for their actions even if the crime is not actually committed. I support that. It also aims to combine the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Assets Recovery Agency, bringing together the experience and expertise of those two important organisations. The Serious Organised Crime Agency is a relatively new organisation which came into being on 1 April last year following a merging of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the Immigration Service. It is an intelligence-led agency with law enforcement powers and responsibility for the harm caused to communities and individuals by serious organised crime. Its workforce includes 1,100 former police officers from the National Crime Squad with their wealth of experience in the areas of investigation and prosecution of those engaged in serious and organised criminal activities. The Assets Recovery Agency was formed earlier, in 2003, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. It undertakes civil and criminal recovery of money which is believed to be the proceeds of crime. It employs around 210 staff in London, Belfast and the regions. It seems sensible to combine these organisations, which currently have similar if occasionally not overlapping responsibilities. The Bill should provide, through the serious crime prevention orders, a more flexible tool which can be used to prevent harm before it happens. It is a preventive measure. It should plug gaps in current legislation that allow those who support and assist crime to escape prosecution because they themselves do not commit it. It should encourage the sharing of data across the sectors, which also seems a sensible use of available valuable information. Additionally and importantly, it will place the national fraud initiative, a data-matching exercise run by the Audit Commission, on a statutory footing and expand its scope of operation. It seems to make sense for the national fraud initiative to be part of the proposed new organisation. However, as with all new Bills that come before the House, there are queries that need to be raised. I look forward to the Minister’s answers to my queries and to those of other noble Lords. My first two queries concern the serious crime prevention orders, about which a number of noble Lords and organisations have expressed concern. I hope that my noble friend will be able to reassure the House that sufficient evidence will be found before such orders are issued and that the orders will therefore not be used as a measure of expediency to criminalise what is currently lawful behaviour. I hope that my noble friend can also assure the House that those who will be involved—prosecutors, members of the legal profession and the courts—will be given adequate training on the aims and objectives of the orders. Unless that happens, difficulties will occur, thus bringing the orders into disrepute before they even have a chance to work. I turn to the sharing of data. I hope that my noble friend can also assure the House that the quality of the data to be shared will be of the highest standard. I can think of nothing worse than the sharing of poor-quality data. That would be not only useless but positively dangerous. My final question concerns the staff who will inevitably be affected by the Bill’s proposals in both the short term and the long term. In any form of merger those employed by the organisations in question are naturally anxious about their future. Change can of course be for the good. However, as some of us who have lived through the merger of the organisation for which we worked can verify, changes can also be for the bad. I therefore want to ask the Minister about plans for the staff involved. Can my noble friend reassure me that they and the unions representing them will be kept fully informed of any proposed changes and will be fully consulted at an early stage of the process of change, particularly regarding protection of their current terms and conditions and any consideration of relocations or redundancies? Like other noble Lords, I look forward to the Bill’s further stages and to our deliberations on it. I am sure that, if nothing else, they will be interesting.