Clause 1 - The National Crime Agency

Part of Crime and Courts Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:30 am on 22 January 2013.

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Photo of David Hanson David Hanson Shadow Minister (Home Affairs) 10:30, 22 January 2013

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention. I will simply point out that clause 4(5) states:

The Director General may direct any of the following persons to perform a task specified in the direction”— and it specifies:

“The chief officer of an England and Wales police force.”

So there is the power for that to happen, although I accept that it would happen only in extremely unusual circumstances because there will be co-operation.

I am not committed to quangos, and I am not saying that we should have quangos all the time, but this is a serious matter. The National Crime Agency will exercise very serious functions. It will take on some of the activities of the Border Agency and the Border Force, it will take on aspects of the work of the National Policing Improvement Agency and it will take on the activities of the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Previously, Governments accepted—and the Opposition did not criticise this when I was a Minister—that a wide range of organisations should contribute to the governance of those bodies, and it is not for Ministers, who ultimately account for the performance of the board to Parliament, to be solely responsible for the undertakings of those agencies.