New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Vernon Coaker)
Tomorrow I will publish the summary of responses to the recent Home Office consultation document entitled “New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime”.

The Green Paper was published on 17 July 2006 and invited views from stakeholders and the public on a comprehensive package of new measures that the Government believe will provide important new tools to assist the authorities in tackling organised criminality more effectively. The proposals included:

Establishing a civil prevention order to be used against individuals and organisations to prevent serious crime.

Improving data sharing within the public sector and between the private and public sectors so that financial crime may be more easily detected and prevented.

Introducing new offences of assisting and encouraging crime so that those on the margins of crime can be brought to justice more easily.

Amending the proceeds of crime legislation to bolster our ability to recover ill-gotten gains.

During its three-month consultation period the Green Paper generated more than l00 responses, summaries of which will be published tomorrow. The majority of responses received were overwhelmingly supportive of the proposals. As a result, the Government intend to introduce legislation in the coming session of Parliament; the overall aim being to prevent the UK from being an attractive option for organised criminals to operate in.

Copies of the document entitled “New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime—Summary of responses to Consultation” will be available in the House of Commons Library and on the Home Office and Crime Reduction websites.