Serious Organised Crime and PoliceAct 2005 (Amendment of Section 76(3)) Order 2007

My Lords, on the last point, it is extremely important that we get hold of the assets as quickly as possible. The noble Lord will be aware of action that the Government are taking in the form of the Serious Crime Bill before your Lordships’ House which is in part aimed at making it much easier for law enforcement agencies to actearly so that any criminal activities can be nipped in the bud. The noble Baroness, Lady Harris, asked some very good questions, only some of which I have answers to. I apologise for that. It is not that it was impossible to anticipate them but the information does not yet properly exist in the form requested by the noble Baroness. She is helpfully indicating that I can write to her, and I was about to make that offer. I am sure that I will. Twelve of the 13 recipients of financial reporting orders are still in prison, so it is hard to judge how effective the orders have been. The recipients are a captive audience at present, but time will tell in terms of compliance rates. They are beginning to have some effect. There are further offences for failure to comply with an order when those to whom the orders are subject do not respond, fail to submit information or supply false information. The offence is punishable by a term of imprisonment of six months. That is pending the commencement of Section 281(5) ofthe Criminal Justice Act 2003 to which the noble Baroness referred. Thus far, non-compliance has resulted in defendants complying or being summoned to court, but nobody has yet been fined or imprisoned within the terms of the legislation. These measures are not draconian. As noble Lords have said during the course of their brief comments, they are right, they should assist us and they further strengthen this regime. That is exactly why we have put them in place. For those reasons, I have pleasure in commending them to your Lordships’ House this afternoon. On Question, Motion agreed to.