Clause 2 - Functions of SOCA as to serious organised crime
Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme, Labour)
I take this opportunity to deal briefly with the relationship between SOCA and the Serious Fraud Office, as recognised explicitly under clause 2. I apologise to the Committee and the Minister for the fact that I could not be in Committee for the whole of this morning's sitting, as a result of which I did not hear my hon. Friend's explanation of the exclusion of the SFO from SOCA, pursuant to the amendment tabled by the Liberal Democrats.
On reflection, I agree entirely with the formal exclusion of the SFO from SOCA on purely practical grounds. Apart from the potential for disruption, the SFO pursues serious, sophisticated and financial crime, which, albeit very organised, does not generally involve violence. Indeed, its exclusion from SOCA acknowledges the fact that the pursuit of fraud might be diluted among all the other priorities that SOCA will have to pursue. Nevertheless, there are serious potential overlaps between their work, not least in respect of the laundering of the proceeds of crime. I am thinking, albeit not exclusively, about the operations of Russian crime syndicates and drugs syndicates.
Clause 2 explicitly acknowledges those overlaps in the reference to the responsibility of SOCA to liaise with the SFO. I also welcome the apparent extension of plea bargaining to the SFO, which the Committee will come to later. Notwithstanding the statutory responsibility on SOCA to liaise with the SFO on matters of fraud, the two agencies will clearly have to work closely in practice to ensure that the liaison happens the other way around, as clause 2 contains no reciprocal duty. They will also have to work closely to ensure that intelligence is shared, that there is effective international co-operation with agencies such as the FBI and that the two agencies generally co-operate rather than compete where their functions overlap.
The SFO has long experience of the use, the advantages and the practical limitations of the section 2 interview powers that are now being envisaged for SOCA. It is experience that the SFO should clearly share with SOCA. When I was a financial journalist pursuing money laundering, fraud and financial crime, the SFO was generally known as the ''Nightmare on Elm Street'', a name derived from its headquarters off Gray's Inn road. It is important that the lessons are learnt so that SOCA does not become the nightmare on Parliament square.