Clause 44 - Monitoring banking transactions
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Ms Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (reducing organised and international crime, anti drugs co-ordination and international and European issues), Home Office; Don Valley, Labour)
The effect of the amendment would be that outgoing requests for account monitoring orders could not be dealt with in the magistrates court. We do not accept the amendment. The Government have made the point under other clauses that, in general, we consider the magistrates court entirely capable of considering and dealing with requests for mutual legal assistance, both incoming and outgoing. Magistrates courts have many years of experience in mutual legal assistance, and we have not heard any strong arguments for changing this practice.
There is no need to restrict outgoing requests to monitor accounts to higher courts; such requests are just another, albeit specialised, type of mutual legal assistance request. Magistrates courts can deal with outgoing requests under clause 7 and, in the interests of consistency, the same approach should be adopted here. Furthermore, it is entirely possible—and likely—that a request for monitoring will involve a request for other types of mutual legal assistance, such as the provision of historical information about the account. Those types of request are not new. The same court should be able to deal with all aspects of the request.
It should be noted that the majority of requests under the clause will be issued by designated prosecuting authorities themselves—that is, the Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and the Serious Fraud Office.
The position in Scotland and Northern Ireland reflects normal existing mutual legal assistance arrangements. The magistrates court will act on behalf of prosecuting authorities, such as the Financial Services Authority, that cannot issue their own requests at present as they are not designated. We
will consult further, particularly on the question of Northern Ireland. The Court Service and the Northern Ireland Office have been consulted.