Serious Crime Bill [Lords]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. This Bill has been debated at some length, both in this House and the other place, which has culminated in us debating on Report a piece of legislation that will provide important tools in the fight against serious crime. I now commend the Bill to the House for its Third Reading. First and foremost, I wish to thank the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Mr. Coaker), for doing all the work on the Bill. I am grateful for that. I also wish to thank Members on both sides of the House for the constructive way in which they have approached the vast majority of the Bill, as we have seen in our deliberations today. I also wish to thank the civil service team that worked diligently and professionally on the Bill, with great spirit and sharp focus. Serious crime represents one of the greatest threats to the security of this country and we all know we must work together to combat those who are determined to make their fortune from crimes such as trafficking in drugs, smuggling people or laundering money. We agree on all those issues, but we may disagree on the best way to achieve our ends. That is only right and proper, and the process of detailed scrutiny of the Bill has given us a piece of legislation that not only will achieve a great deal, but is in far better shape at the end of the parliamentary process than it was at the beginning. Among other things the Bill provides law enforcement with an effective new tool to prevent the harm caused by serious crime before it happens: the serious crime prevention order, which is carefully targeted at inhibiting criminal activity, but which is put in place by the courts only where it is reasonable and proportionate to do so. The measure delivers a strengthening of the provisions that allow us to seize the assets of serious criminals, which will help us to deliver the target of doubling confiscation of criminal assets to £250 million per year by 2010, including merging the Assets Recovery Agency into the Serious Organised Crime Agency to give further improvements in efficiency. The Bill improves the way in which we are able to use data, across the public and private sectors, to prevent and detect fraud. It addresses the gap in the criminal law identified by the Law Commission concerning incitement. It makes the surveillance powers on which we have just deliberated available to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, and enables them to be used for investigations into serious crime in relation to ex-Customs and Excise matters; they will also be available in relation to investigations into serious crime concerning ex-Inland Revenue matters.