To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) individuals, and (b) companies, charities or other organisations, are recorded on the Suspicious Activity Reports database of the Serious Organised Crime Agency. [HL2613]

The Serious Organised Crime Agency’s database, known as ELMER, on which suspicious activity reports are recorded does not have the capability to provide the information sought.

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether all Suspicious Activity Reports submitted to the Serious Organised Crime Agency are recorded on the database of the Agency; and whether those reports which the agency considers unfounded are removed from the database. [HL2614]

All suspicious activity reports (SARs) are recorded on the database known as ELMER. The Serious Organised Crime Agency does not consider the basis on which individual SARs are reported, nor does it remove any SAR from the database on this basis.

To ask Her Majesty's Government why Nottingham County Council has access to the Suspicious Activity Reports database of the Serious Organised Crime Agency; and which other local authorities have access to the database. [HL2615]

There is an accredited financial investigator in Nottingham County Council who is able to access and use the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s database of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) from a terminal in a local police unit. The financial investigator uses SARs when investigating housing benefit fraud. No other local authority currently has access to the SARs database. Accredited financial investigators were established in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (References to Financial Investigators) (Amendment) Order 2005 (SI 2005/386) added local authority fraud investigators to the list of financial investigators who could use various powers in the Act.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what records are kept of those accessing the Suspicious Activity Reports database of the Serious Organised Crime Agency. [HL2616]

The database of suspicious activity reports, known as ELMER, allows the Serious Organised Crime Agency to extract information about access of the data by users of the system. SOCA undertakes analysis of this usage and retains the results of this for the period of time for which the information has operational value.