Part of Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:30 pm on 13 January 2005.
Dominic Grieve
Shadow Attorney General
4:30,
13 January 2005
The example might be unfortunate, but the money laundering provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 go far and wide. All unlawful activities of a huge variety of kinds are caught by it. It is about funny money—money that has been made in an unlawful fashion. There may be times when money can be lawfully made from something abroad, but then there comes an Act in that foreign country and the activity becomes unlawful. If the date of disclosure is key, we shall be asking accountants and others to make disclosures about activities that they know perfectly well from looking at the records before them were perfectly lawful when the money was being generated in the foreign country.
That seems slightly odd, although the Minister could argue that it is better that a disclosure be made in those circumstances and the authorities will then decide whether further action need be taken. I think that there is an issue in this respect, however, and I am grateful to the Minister for saying that she will go away and think about it a little further. It seemed to me that if we adopted my Amendment, which was designed to highlight the issue, it would solve the problem or at least go quite a long way towards solving it. I do not see a huge downside to it, but I accept that if the current rules are ''unlawful at the date of disclosure'', my amendment would drive something of a coach and horses through that. I await with interest the Minister's comments.
The Minister has reassured me on the other point, and I look forward to seeing in due course the list that the Home Secretary produces. I simply make this point, which I think from her own comments the Minister already appreciates: even though we may dislike activities in some foreign countries, we create a strange situation if, except for a very restricted number of offences, which I describe as having an international characteristic, we impose penalties on individuals who carry out lawful activities in foreign countries. It is important that we do not end up with such people potentially having their assets investigated or seized and with accountants having to make disclosures in that respect. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Question proposed, That the Clause stand part of the Bill.
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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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