Clause 2 - Functions of SOCA as to serious organised crime

Part of Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:45 pm on 11 January 2005.

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Photo of Caroline Flint Caroline Flint Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) 3:45, 11 January 2005

I thank my hon. and learned Friend for that intervention, which proves that anything can mean anything if it is taken out of context.

We should be aware of and brave about the fact that for the first time we are trying to find a way of identifying different harms to communities and society and addressing them in a meaningful and accountable way. By serious and organised crime, we generally mean criminal activities across national borders carried out in conjunction with others to produce substantial profits. We have not defined that in the Bill, as SOCA will not have an exclusive remit on the issues that it is tackling; it will also need to engage with agencies dealing with more localised criminal activities. In its focus on reducing the harm caused by serious organised crime, SOCA will need to make a judgment about the most effective use of its resources.   We do not want to set artificially restrictive definitions. In practice, SOCA will respond to the strategic priorities set by the Secretary of State under clause 9, which will reflect the views of the Cabinet Committee on Organised Crime.

As I said before, SOCA will take the place of four organisations or parts of organisations in tackling those important areas of criminality. However, this is not just a machinery of government-type change that brings them together for administrative convenience. However good each of the bodies may be in its own right, the reality is that they are operating according to priorities and performance management regimes that treat them as single bodies. They cannot be as effective as a single body, which can focus its combined resources on a single strategy. SOCA will work in a fundamentally different way to its predecessors. Its prime concern, and the ultimate purpose of the organisation, is reducing the harm from organised crime. Criminal convictions and seizures of drugs will of course be an important component, but as I said, we are also looking at ways to disrupt illegal business through other means, such as by pursuing a major operator for tax evasion or by hardening the targets that criminals are attacking. Most important, SOCA will be a genuinely intelligence-led organisation. Real knowledge and understanding of the problems must be its first responsibility. That in turn will drive decisions about which activities to target and the best means of attacking them.