Clause 73 - Financial reporting orders:
Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill
3:00 pm
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)
As has been outlined, the amendment would require the person receiving financial reports to inform the subject of them every time a report was disclosed. That would provide the subject with a complete list of the enforcement agencies that were taking an interest in his potentially illegal financial affairs, as well as any third parties who had been asked to provide verification of the information in the report.
I acknowledge that this is a difficult area. One problem is that investigations could be prejudiced and third parties put at risk of intimidation in the course of verification of information. The other is that the probation service—as the go-between—could gain an unnecessary bureaucratic burden. However, it is important that the individual to whom an FRO is attached is fully aware of how the information might be used, and who might have access to it. In that situation, it is right that we issue guidance so that those who are subject to the orders are left in no doubt about what the content of the reports will potentially be used for and by which agencies. We believe that the drawbacks of the amendment outweigh the benefits, and we think that it would create an over-bureaucratic process. I ask the hon. Gentleman not to press his amendment.