New powers proposed to fight organised crime
Summary
The
Serious
Crime Bill (House of Lords Bill 27) will introduce new powers that will
strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to fight serious organised
crime.
Measures include:
- Establishing a new civil
serious crime prevention order to curb organised criminal activity
- Improving legislative provisions to restrict the proceeds of crime
- Bringing in new offences of ‘encouraging or assisting a criminal act with
intent’ and ‘encouraging or assisting a criminal act believing that an
offence may be committed’ – this is based on the Law Commission's report
'Inchoate
Liability for Assisting and Encouraging Crime - Cm. 6878'
- Developing data-sharing between private and public sector enforcement
agencies to improve fraud detection and prevention.
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How does it affect me?
The
new powers will restrict the activities of those suspected of money laundering,
fraud, drugs and human trafficking, and will strengthen law enforcement powers
to seize control of assets (e.g. cash, properties and cars). A five-year prison
term has been suggested as the penalty for breaking the restrictions.
The proposed civil orders work in the same way as the recently introduced
‘terrorist control orders’. However, as there have been issues implementing
the terrorist orders, it has been suggested that the serious crime proposals
may not work.
The Serious Crime Bill is currently in ‘reading’
stages in the House of Lords: more about it on the
Commons Leader
website.
If you have any comments on the proposals, you can email
them to: oc.consultation@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
