Clause 69 - Financial reporting orders: making
Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Huntingdon, Conservative)
This important issue, which I am sure all hon. Members will recollect, is not, unfortunately, addressed in the Bill. Basically, the Bill gives the courts the right to do whatever they like within a five to 20-year period for Crown courts and a five-year period for magistrates courts. That power needs to be further curtailed, even within the context of the list of offences in the clause.
I appreciate that it is a difficult issue. If someone is found guilty of obtaining property by deception, for instance, that does not necessarily mean that the amounts involved were significant. If very small sums were involved, a financial reporting order may be suitable for only a very short time, and it is questionable whether it would be suitable at all. Parliament should take more responsibility on this and the amendments set out our suggestions on how to go about that.
We have avoided formulae, or different terms for different crimes. Rather, we have looked at the court involved in the process, while bearing in mind that the Bill is meant to be about serious crimes. If the crime is dealt with by a magistrates court, where sentences must be for less than one year, the court should not have the right to issue financial reporting orders. Indeed, in deciding whether to send the case to a higher court, magistrates should bear in mind the likelihood that an order will have to be issued. Such orders are likely to be fairly difficult to get right, and one has to wonder whether the average magistrates court has the expertise to judge them. I should have thought that such things belonged in a Crown court.
Finally, there is the question of the practicalities. At present, the accused is asked before sentencing in a magistrates court to fill in a form outlining his income and expenses. In the real world, however, such forms are usually filled in lightly and in a rather haphazard way. For the most part, that does not really matter, because the vast majority of fines in a magistrates court will be minor. Indeed, that is the whole purpose of magistrates courts, which can hand out quick and cheap justice for mainly minor crimes. Introducing the concept of considering future finances could well be an administrative nightmare for the average magistrates court. For that reason, we have tabled the amendments.