Serious Crime Bill [HL]

Before the Minister sits down, I make a short plea. This level of international crime is highly sophisticated and the people who operate within it have very bright advisers who are busy helping them to escape the law. This agency requires sophisticated, intelligent and knowledgeable people. There is a cadre of such people available—perhaps not aged 20 or 30, but certainly in their 40s. There are people in the City of London who have probably done rather well and might wish to do something for their country. I am aware of a number of such people in their early 40s; they will not want to be paid the Earth. I hope that this agency will have a pretty wide recruitment policy and will want to attract people of a high calibre, who know about international banking, international money flows and so on, because that is one of the keys to catching the criminals we are dealing with.