Clause 43 - Application, discharge and variation
Proceeds of Crime Bill
9:30 am
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Coventry North East, Labour)
We want the director to be able to pass his responsibilities down to appropriately trained people. This case will involve the director or those accredited by him as financial investigators. Such people will have the appropriate skill to ensure that restraint orders will be applied for only when they are justified.
For such reasons, we intend to give accredited financial investigators the ability to apply for restraint orders. That is a new measure. Accredited financial investigators are those who are accredited by the director in accordance with clause 3. They are likely to be employed primarily in the police force, in financial investigation units or by Customs and Excise. As I said regarding the venue, considerable expertise is sometimes required to make the investigations, and people will want to know that only appropriately qualified people will apply for them.