Clause 73 - Financial reporting orders:
Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, Home Affairs; Beaconsfield, Conservative)
I can see the Minister's point that it might be unusual for an employer to be contacted. I would certainly expect that if a substantial sum of money were to appear in a bank account and the person were to say that they sold their car to someone down the road, the investigator might want to go off and check. If it turns out to be a legitimate transaction, that has the capacity to inform the person down the road of the fact that the person up the road, with whom they thought that they were having perfectly amicable relations, is subject to an FRO. It is one of those matters of balance, but if the guidance is issued so that we do not end up with a situation, as the Minister has rightly appreciated, where people complain that their attempts to go straight have been wrecked by intrusive disclosure of information about their finances when they have done nothing wrong. That is what we have to guard against.
I accept that those who have committed criminal offences and are subject to FROs will have to accept the burden that goes with it. That is just tough. However, the dividing line that we have to find is that between being tough and being over-tough or unfair. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.