Clause 3 - Functions of SOCA as to information relating to crime
Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill
4:00 pm
Mr David Heath (Shadow Minister (Home Affairs), Home Affairs; Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the Minister for her comprehensive reply. She has allayed my fears a little, although I stressed throughout my remarks that I did not believe that operationally it would make the slightest difference to the activities of SOCA. I was providing a defence for the occasion on which information is given in good faith to an organisation that subsequently proved to be inappropriate for some reason. The difficulty now is that that would be entirely legal and within the definition. There could be no comeback if the body's activities were similar in any way to those of SOCA or a police force. The definition gives carte blanche, so the aggrieved citizen would have no redress in such circumstances. However, if the body involved had to be recognised by the Secretary of State, SOCA would first have the defence that the body was so recognised and thus could not be held to be unreasonable. Moreover, such a requirement would weed out any inappropriate bodies from the start—one hopes.
The hon. Member for Bassetlaw made an interesting observation about drugs liaison officers. They are integral to the fight against illegal drug importation. I am reminded of previous debates on budgets after a difficulty occurred when placing drugs liaison officers abroad. Although that may have been resolved by the two Departments in question, the difficulty lay in the fact that the Home Office had a deterrent to placing a great number of drugs liaison officers because they were recharged on the basis of the running costs of the mission as a whole for the costs of placing a drugs liaison officer in an overseas mission . The Foreign and Commonwealth Office apportioned a part of the overall costs of the mission to the Home Office in recompense for placing a drugs liaison officer within the mission.
That is all very well between Departments; it is almost a paper transaction. Were it to happen in the case of an organisation with its own budget, which has to then find those costs, there would be a marked deterrent to placing such officers in overseas missions. I hope that that has been resolved; I am going back four or five years to when I was examining the matter as a member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, but in the case of the position in central Asia and, indeed, in the far East, the costs of placing drugs liaison officers was then a current issue.
I do not expect the Minister to give a response now because I am sure that she does not know off the top of her head what the present situation is. However, perhaps she will consider the issue, because if drugs liaison officers are to form part of the personnel of SOCA, there could be a very large cost to the Department. She might like to clear it with the FCO before we reach that point rather than after and having it cause her significant difficulties. She has helpfully drawn my attention to the provisions of the Police Act 1997. I was not aware that a similar provision was included in it. On the basis of what she has said, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 3 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 4 ordered to stand part of the Bill.