Draft National Crime Agency (Directed Tasking) Order 2023

Dan Jarvis Excerpts

Wednesday 24th April 2024 General Committees

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

It is a particular pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I thank the Minister for his remarks.

As the Minister set out, the order amends the Crime and Courts Act 2013 and the Criminal Justice Act 1987. Doing so will provide the director general of the National Crime Agency with the power to direct the Serious Fraud Office to perform specified tasks in investigating financial crime. As the Minister knows, the Opposition will always work with the Government on countering serious and organised crime. We therefore support the order, because it is crucial that there is a joined-up response across our law enforcement agencies to fight serious and organised crime, including fraud.

Fraud is the single largest crime type in the UK. The crime survey for England and Wales estimates that 40% of crimes against individuals are frauds. Britain should be a hostile environment for all types of serious and organised crime, with an approach from our police and law enforcement agencies that is ruthlessly relentless in countering what constitutes some of the most pernicious criminal activity. Therefore, although I will endeavour to be brief, I want to make a few points and ask some questions about the context and detail of the order, and I would be grateful if the Minister responded to them, either when he rises to his feet or by letter.

Before I do so, I pay tribute to all those in the NCA, the SFO, and all our police and law enforcement agencies who fight serious and organised crime. The nature of their work means that they serve in the shadows, and some of their work, for instance fighting financial crime, may perhaps be a little less gritty than some of their colleagues’, but it is no less important. The old adage “follow the money” continues to be a sound one. After meeting some of them recently, my huge respect for them has only grown. They do not always get the recognition that they deserve, and I am sure the Minister and the entire Committee will join me in thanking them for their service.

It is important to note that the order originates from the Government’s serious and organised crime strategy published in December. That document, which provides important direction in countering some of the worst crime in the country, should have the soundest of foundations. However, it states that the estimated financial cost of serious and organised crime to the UK is £47 billion, a figure the Minister mentioned earlier—interestingly, I think he said “at least £47 billion”. By my maths—I am happy to be corrected if I have got this wrong—£47 billion is an inflation-adjusted figure from the £37 billion in the 2015 report. With fraud alone recorded to have doubled in 2023, according to the accounting firm BDO, the £47 billion figure cannot properly reflect the reality of serious and organised crime now, and therefore cannot properly inform the response required from Government to disrupt and defeat it.

I would be grateful if the Minister gave us his assessment of the very latest actual cost of serious and organised crime to the UK. If he has a good memory, he might remember that he said in his answer to my written question on 23 January that the Home Office would publish an updated figure. On 8 February, the Minister for Legal Migration responded to my follow-up written question on this matter, saying that a research report on the cost of serious and organised crime would not be published until 2025. I have to say, that is not good enough. Why cannot that important information be published sooner? Why could it not have been calculated in time to be included in the serious and organised crime strategy that was published back in December?

On the arrangements that will support the order, I draw the Minister’s attention to two issues. The first lies with a specific type of direction the NCA will give the SFO to carry out. The complex nature of fraud and financial crime cases means that they can be connected to other ongoing investigations into other aspects of serious and organised crime that could be the responsibility of the NCA, but not of the SFO. It is entirely understandable, and indeed necessary, that the Minister will not want to say anything that would compromise capability, but it might be helpful to the Committee if he could say something about the thresholds that need to be met before the NCA gives direction to the SFO to conduct specified tasks. Does he also have an estimate, even if it is approximate, of how many direct orders the NCA could issue over the next 12 months?

The order specifies that the NCA will meet the costs of the SFO’s completing a specified task. However, there are still questions about how the SFO will deliver, because it is not yet clear that it will have sufficient resources such as staff, offices, payroll, equipment and so on. Can the Minister give an assurance that the SFO will have sufficient resources to deliver on what is being asked of it by the NCA? If not, what work has taken or is taking place with the Attorney General’s Office to ensure that it can? Also, if the cost of an NCA-directed task carried out by the SFO exceeds the payment made by the NCA, who will pay the difference?

The Opposition welcome the strengthening of the close working relationship that already exists between the NCA and the SFO, and we support the order. However, we seek assurances from the Minister that the right infrastructure is in place to facilitate the new working arrangements between the NCA and the SFO. I am sure the Minister will continue to appreciate the constructive spirit of our remarks in these Committees as we work together in the national interest on these important matters.