Clause 75 - Criminal lifestyle
Proceeds of Crime Bill
10:30 am
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
My hon. Friend may be right. The list refers also to insider dealing, and in certain circumstances such an offence could fall outside the scope of paragraphs (a), (b), (d) and (e). In that case, the offence would have to have been committed within a short time. However, such an offence is likely to require some preparation and therefore to have taken place over the specified six-month period.
The list covers ''dealing in child pornography''. That may be an example of when a person could be arrested on the first offence and be able to show a shorter course of conduct. We may have to consider what the Minister means by
''it constitutes conduct forming part of a ... criminal activity''.
My understanding of the clause is that any of the tests must be satisfied. The conditions mentioned in paragraphs (d) and (e) need not be satisfied together, because (d) can be satisfied without satisfying (e) for the time over which the offence was committed.
I shall finish the list to ensure that it is on the record: pimping, brothel keeping, corruption and terrorist funding offences. I tell the Minister that if the list is designed to be exhaustive in so far as there may be categories of offences that the Government are concerned may fall outside the scope of paragraphs (a) to (e), the sensible thing would be to state and refer to such offences specifically by amending the Bill. Alternatively, if the occasions on which the Minister believes that the Assets Recovery Agency should be brought into play involve offences that are likely to be over a time frame of six months or more, I am struck that it is unnecessary to include paragraph (c) at all.
The Minister will understand the anxiety that hon. Members are bound to have about paragraph (c). We are giving unfettered power to the Secretary of State—subject to regulations—to classify any offence that he decides to incorporate. The legislation will apply retrospectively because a regulation that has been specified may refer to conduct that occurred prior to the legislation coming into effect. That is a more compelling reason why the Committee and Parliament should be wary of giving extensive powers, by regulation, to place within criminal lifestyle provisions categories of offence that Parliament and the public may have never imagined would be included in such provisions. I do not believe in giving excessive discretion to Ministers. Is there a compelling argument why the provision's inclusion is desirable?