My Lords, I have put my name to various amendments on this issue, going back to the Criminal Finances Act last April, and I add my thanks to my noble friend for having listened so intently and for having tabled Amendment 3, which we are debating this afternoon. As I prepared for this discussion in Committee, I raised a couple of points with his office. As ever, he and his office were punctilious in responding, but some clarification might be helpful for those of us who are not as accustomed and learned in the law as others are.
The first issue concerns commencement. Originally, reading this through, it appeared to fall under a clause where the commencement was set by the Secretary of State and that was the trigger for the 12-month clock. I was concerned that we might have a delay in the Secretary of State triggering this clause: it was not in
Clause 54. The commencement of each clause is set down, but the commencement might be delayed. The Minister’s office pointed out that Amendment 5 triggers the clock on Royal Assent. It would be helpful if he could make that clear. It would also be helpful if he could say when he expects Royal Assent to take place, although I quite understand that he cannot give a commitment. If Royal Assent is delayed, let us say through the summer, it might be nearly two years before we get the first report: if commencement were to start in August or September, it would be September 2019 before we get news of any progress whatever. So it would be helpful to the House if my noble friend, either now or by writing to those of us who have been involved in the proceedings on this Bill, will say how and when he expects the clock to start ticking.
My second point concerns an omission in the words of Amendment 3, which we are debating. When my noble friend Lord Faulks and I tabled Amendment 75 —and earlier amendments—it did not cover just a register of companies and other legal entities registered outside the UK that own or buy UK property but also covered those which,
“bid for UK government contracts”.
Those words do not appear in the amendment before us today. My noble friend’s officials have drawn my attention to, and indeed he has mentioned, the Written Ministerial Statement, tabled today, that commits the Government to dealing with a public register of beneficial owners of non-UK entities that own or buy UK property or which participate in UK government procurement. So, that is covered in the statement, but it is disappointing that we do not have it in the Bill, which is where we started and what we hoped for when we set out on this long and rather stony road.
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Of course, it is true that this aspect has been rather overlooked in our debates. The glamour, if that is the right word, of people buying £19 million Mayfair properties when they are paid £250,000 a year has rather caught our eye. I plead guilty to that myself. However, it is very important that we tackle this because it is an area where anecdotal evidence is everywhere but hard facts are much harder to come by. A lot of people would suggest that organised crime will try to establish an inoffensive base—an everyday activity that will not arouse suspicion—and once that has been established, the tentacles can spread out. Often mentioned at local government level are such things as waste disposal, landfill, rubbish collection and taxi services. That is because local government have only two criteria for awarding contracts: price and technical competence—that is to say, “Are you the cheapest price and can you do the task for which you have tendered?” There is absolutely no requirement to take police intelligence into account in awarding a contract. I am told—inevitably by high-level anecdotal evidence—that some Italian gangs have been moving north in Europe, into Germany, in a very well-planned, organised and controlled way, and we have no idea yet whether they have reached the United Kingdom.
People say, “Have you come across this? Have you come across that?” There is a concern that there is a great deal more criminal activity in government
contracting than is realised, and some people suggest that there is a reluctance to dive deep into this area because people may not like what they find out. It would be most helpful if my noble friend can say a bit more about the way in which overseas firms that participate in government contracts will be integrated into what is basically a property register. It would be helpful to hear about monitoring methods, sanctions, enforcement and, above all, the phrase in the Government’s Written Ministerial Statement that refers to beneficial owners of non-UK entities that own or buy UK property,
“or which participate in UK Government procurement”.
Does that include local government procurement, because obviously that is where some of the most difficult and problematic things—and the easiest points of entry for people with malice aforethought—are?
We still have some work to do in this area. Nevertheless, in concluding my remarks I thank my noble friend very much for what he has done so far. The steps he has taken are in the right direction, but we still have some work to do on looking at government procurement and whether this issue covers local government procurement, as I am not sure we have got it all quite right yet.