Clause 12 - Time for payment
Proceeds of Crime Bill
10:30 am
Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
Indeed.
I am disappointed that my adversary from Second Reading, the hon. Member for Glasgow, Pollok (Mr. Davidson), is not present, because it seems to me that he holds to the view that if one has nothing to hide, there is no reason why one should object to the Assets Recovery Agency, or any police authority, bugging one's phone-or, rather, my phone-or searching my house at will, or inspecting my bank account without my consent. Concerns about such matters have been expressed. The Committee has had a great debate on clause 11, which is one of the key clauses. Clause 12 follows on from it by addressing the matter of the time of payment.
One of my fundamental concerns is about the balance between the individual and the state. As I have said, concern is felt in many of our inner cities about the large number of criminals who are able to get away with murder-so to speak-by having extensive assets that seem to be beyond the grasp of the state.
As the Minister pointed out, it was a Conservative Government of the 1980s that first introduced more draconian powers through the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986, which was repealed by the Drug Trafficking Act 1994. However, there is an issue about the balance between the power of the state and the power of the individual. My overriding concern is that so many new powers are being introduced that soon the balance will be shifted in favour of the state-and that will be the case not only for criminals but for every individual. That is why we have gone into what might be described as tortuous detail to try to tease out from the Government how they feel such matters will pan out.
I appreciate the frustrations that are felt concerning this matter. I am sure that the Minister looks at what is going on and is greatly concerned that large sums of drug money are not being confiscated, and that many Mr. Bigs are able to hire expensive lawyers and to invest much of their money overseas. There is a desire to try to get hold of that cash, particularly since the outrage of 11 September. He will recall that, when I spoke about that matter on Second Reading, I mentioned that the terrorists often have legitimate money. Certainly, much of Osama bin Laden's money had a legitimate origin and would not fall within the scope of much that we are discussing.
I want to touch on the practicalities involved in the issue of time for payment. We are all aware that the defendant in such a case will have already been subject to a full financial investigation. I propose these small changes for practical purposes. Obviously a fundamental assessment will be made of a person's financial affairs when they are under investigation and at some point close to conviction. The amendment struck me as a practical proposition. I wanted to leave that flexibility, which will make sense for the practical application of the time frame, not so much to give seven days' grace-that is not the idea-but merely to allow the authorities to ensure that the matter proceeds as smoothly as possible.