Response to consultation paper on organised and financial crime
New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime
The responses to the Green Paper New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime were broadly supportive of the Government's proposals. Most respondents recognised the need to stay one step ahead of serious criminals and to continue to provide law enforcement with the flexible range of tools necessary to meet the evolving challenge presented by serious and organised crime. This paper summarises those responses.
Title: New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime - A summary of reponses
Author: Home Office
Number of pages: 27
Date published: November 2006
Availability: Download full report 
PDF 112Kb
Data Sharing
The Government intends to provide a suite of tools that will benefit the public and private sector in their fight against fraud. Respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of more information sharing to prevent fraud, particularly across both the public and private sectors. Respondents cited problems with the existing data sharing gateways and so the Government intends to legislate to create a general power to allow cross-sector data-sharing on fraudsters to take place. The majority of respondents felt that the most appropriate vehicle for this data sharing would be CIFAS , the UK's fraud prevention service.
The intention to move towards a situation where all applicants for public services should expect to have their details checked against a fraud prevention database was welcomed. Respondents were clear, though, that the proposed improvements in fraud prevention should be balanced by appropriate safeguards, including a high level of security for the sharing and warehousing of sensitive information and appropriate penalties for the wilful misuse of personal and sensitive data. We have worked closely with the Department of Constitutional Affairs and the Information Commissioner to ensure that the proposals are compliant with both the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act.
In addition, respondents were very much in favour of placing the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) on a statutory footing, recognising the proven value of the NFI exercise. The majority of respondents also saw the potential in matching Suspicious Activity Reports against a range of public sector databases - described as a "fundamentally sensible idea" with "clear and tangible benefits".
Respondents expressed concern that Government works closely with the Information Commissioner in developing further developing the proposals on data mining. The Government has been doing so and will continue to do so to produce codes of practice to govern data mining exercises.
Criminal Law
The proposals in the Green Paper built on the suggested offences set out by the Law Commission on encouraging and assisting crime. Opinions differed as to the exact behaviour that should be criminalised by clause 2 of the Law Commission proposals - between those who felt that the offence should be restricted to those who "believe" that an offence "will" be committed and those who thought it should be widened. Though arguments put forward on both sides were strong, slightly more respondents favoured the latter approach.
The Government is discussing the issues raised during the consultation exercise with prosecutors, investigators and judges. Government believes that there are sound policy reasons and practical advantages to changing the law along the lines suggested in the Report and real benefits in relation to organised crime. The Government intends to accept the Law Commission proposals but will consider carefully the scope of the offence in clause 2.
The majority of responses were supportive of the proposal to introduce a new offence aimed specifically at those who assist organised crime. There were concerns, however, around for example whether such an offence was necessary alongside the more general offences proposed. The Government believes there could be advantages in an offence that criminalises indirect assistance. It will look closely at whether the Law Commission proposals as they stand or with minor modification might be suitable to capture this behaviour.
Serious Crime Prevention Orders
The majority of respondents agreed that the creation of a flexible civil order, as proposed, would provide a useful tool to law enforcement in their fight against serious crime. There was concern from some of those who responded that any such order should be fully compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights in the terms it imposed on individuals. The Government is committed to balancing the rights of the victims of organised crime with those upon whom an order might be imposed in a way which is consistent with the Convention. Only the courts will be able to grant an order and, as public authorities for the purposes of the Human Rights Act, they will only impose such conditions as are compliant with the Convention.
Another concern which was raised was the potential impact of the orders on 3rd parties, i.e. those affected by the order but not subject to it. The comments made have been very helpful in developing policy on how this situation will be handled. Government will provide that, as part of the procedure for making an application for an order, prosecutors will have to give consideration to, and bring to the court's attention, the potential impact on 3rd parties. The courts will then be able to make an informed decision as to what terms of the order might be reasonable.
One issue on which the majority of respondents agreed was that, if the orders were to be useful, there would need to be flexibility in the terms of the order for the courts to be able to respond to the evolving threat posed by organised crime.
Proceeds of Crime
The Government intends to further enhance the powers within the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and asset recovery work as a whole in order to further increase the efficiency of those involved in this area, with a commitment to recover £250m by 2009-10. Respondents were almost completely in favour of extending the powers of civilian financial investigators to equate with those available to constables and officers of Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC). This was a natural progression of financial investigators powers as financial investigation became more of a core business for many public bodies such as the Serious Fraud Office , the Immigration Service and local authorities. Financial investigators will have a better range of powers to contribute to the overall value of assets recovered.
An area of concern for the Government was the enforcement of confiscation orders once they had been issued by the courts. Respondents were supportive of the proposal to contract out enforcement of confiscation orders and the Government will now consider the detail of this further. It has concluded that the proposal can be achieved administratively without the need for legislation. Respondents were not supportive of the proposal to cancel confiscation orders that cannot be paid. The Government accepts that this proposal could lead to abuse and does not complement other statements about strengthening enforcement measures. Government is therefore going to reconsider this issue. Respondents raised many technical concerns regarding the merger of the confiscation and enforcement hearings. It is accepted that the proposal is a bold and complex one which would require significant more work and so it will not be included in the legislation. The Government is committed to improving collection of proceeds and so other lesser measures to strengthen the enforcement scheme and the Proceeds of Crime Act as a whole are being considered to possibly be brought forward in the legislation.
The invitation to comment on the consent provisions in respect of money laundering elicited a mixed response. The financial industry is supportive of the reporting regime but views on how it can be improved to reduce regulatory burden while still providing valuable intelligence to law enforcement were varied. Due to the complex nature of this issue, the Government is to develop more detailed proposals in slower time with a view to consulting in the future. There will be no legislative change at this time.
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Last update: Friday, November 17, 2006