Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will include a new offence of failing to prevent economic crime in the provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill announced in the Queen's Speech 2022.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Building on the recently enacted Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will bear down further on kleptocrats, criminals and terrorists who abuse our financial system, strengthening the UK's reputation as a place where legitimate business can thrive while driving dirty money out of the UK.
As set out in the Queen’s Speech, the Bill will include reform of Companies House, reforms to prevent abuse of limited partnerships, additional powers to seize suspect cryptoassets more quickly and easily, and reforms to give businesses more confidence to share information in order to tackle money laundering and other economic crime.
The Government keeps UK law under regular review to ensure a robust legislative framework. In 2020, the Government commissioned the Law Commission to undertake a detailed review of how the legislative system could be improved to appropriately capture and punish criminal offences committed by corporations, with a particular focus on economic crime.
The Law Commission report was published on 10 June. The Government will carefully assess the options presented and will take forward the strongest options for reform.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed asylum processing site at Linton-on-Ouse on (a) public services and (b) local residents in the context of that village's population size relative to the number of asylum seekers proposed to be accommodated at that site.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is conducting an Equality Impact Assessment on the use of Linton-On-Ouse as an accommodation centre.
Key local partners and stakeholders have been notified of the plans for Linton-on-Ouse. We are bringing together statutory and other agencies on a regular basis both in the implementation stage and when the site is operational.
We are also engaging with the local community and discussing the site with them through scheduled meetings and forums.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the compatibility of the proposed asylum processing site at Linton-on-Ouse with section 1.7 of the National Audit Office report entitled COMPASS contracts for the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers, published in 2014, which states that contractors are required to consider a range of social cohesion, housing and community factors alongside cost when proposing properties for dispersal accommodation for asylum seekers and the level of risk of increased social tension if the number of asylum seekers increases within a given area.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The COMPASS contracts ended when the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contracts (AASC) were awarded in 2019. The Home Office’s use of the of Linton-on-Ouse will be as an accommodation centre not dispersed accommodation.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to introduce legislation to make the sale of banned narcotics to people under the age of 16 a specific criminal offence.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We have no plans to introduce legislation to make the sale of drugs to people under the age of 16 a specific criminal offence. Under s.4(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA 1971), it is unlawful to “supply or offer to supply a controlled drug to another”. This is expanded upon by s.4(3), which makes it an offence: (a) to supply or offer to supply a controlled drug to another in contravention of s.4(1); or (b) to be concerned in the supplying of such a drug to another in contravention of s.4(1); or (c) to be concerned in the making to another an offer to supply such a drug (in contravention of s.4(1)).
These provisions do not differentiate between different classes of person based on age or any other characteristic. The offence is made out where a person supplies a controlled drug to another person or offers to supply a controlled drug to another person. It would therefore be an offence under s.4 MDA 1971 to supply a controlled drug to a person under the age of 16 (subject of course to any applicable exemptions and licences held).
Additionally, section 4A of the MDA 1971 sets out the circumstances that a court must treat as aggravating factors in respect of the offence of supply of a controlled drug under s.4. These circumstances are:
(a) When a person supplies a controlled drug on or in the vicinity of school premises when those premises are being used by persons under 18 (and within one hour of any such time); and
(b) When a person causes or permits a person under 18 to deliver a controlled drug to a third person or to deliver a drug related consideration to himself or a third person in connection with the offence of supply of a controlled drug.
The provisions of s.4A are concerned with where the supply took place (e.g. in the vicinity of a school), when the supply took place (e.g. during school hours) and whether a child courier was used to effect the supply.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff were in the National Crime Agency's International Corruption Unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Crime Agency collects the above information. However, it is not judged appropriate to publicly provide this information on operational and national security grounds.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff there were in the National Crime Agency's Financial Intelligence Unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Budget: The UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) is part of the NCA called the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC). Overall annual expenditure for the NECC is available in the NCA’s Annual Reports for the past three years (since it has been formed).
2018/19 - Gross expenditure for the Prosperity Command - £22.0m (Note the NECC was formally launched on 31 October 2018, before which the NCA’s Prosperity Command fulfilled some of the same functions. In the 2019/20 Annual Report, an apportionment of £6.7m in 2018/19 was made for the NECC.)
2019/20 - Gross expenditure for the NECC - £30.0m
2020/21 – Gross expenditure for the NECC - £35.5m
Number of UKFIU staff:
The most recent information on the number of staff within the UKFIU can be found in the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress available here: Economic crime plan 2019 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budget was for the National Crime Agency's Financial Intelligence Unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Budget: The UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) is part of the NCA called the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC). Overall annual expenditure for the NECC is available in the NCA’s Annual Reports for the past three years (since it has been formed).
2018/19 - Gross expenditure for the Prosperity Command - £22.0m (Note the NECC was formally launched on 31 October 2018, before which the NCA’s Prosperity Command fulfilled some of the same functions. In the 2019/20 Annual Report, an apportionment of £6.7m in 2018/19 was made for the NECC.)
2019/20 - Gross expenditure for the NECC - £30.0m
2020/21 – Gross expenditure for the NECC - £35.5m
Number of UKFIU staff:
The most recent information on the number of staff within the UKFIU can be found in the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress available here: Economic crime plan 2019 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff there were in the National Crime Agency's Civil Recovery Team in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The NCA deals with a number of civil recovery investigations utilising staff from a range of departments including investigations, legal and intelligence.
For this reason, the budget is not specifically determinable in relation to solely civil recovery work. How many staff deal with civil recovery at any one time is, of course, not constant and is tailored to those opportunities as they are tasked.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budget was for the National Crime Agency's Civil Recovery Team in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The NCA deals with a number of civil recovery investigations utilising staff from a range of departments including investigations, legal and intelligence.
For this reason, the budget is not specifically determinable in relation to solely civil recovery work. How many staff deal with civil recovery at any one time is, of course, not constant and is tailored to those opportunities as they are tasked.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) investigations, (b) arrests, (c) disruptions, (d) prosecutions and (e) convictions have been undertaken by the National Crime Agency in relation to money laundering and other economic crime in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the National Crime Agency’s investigative activity over the past five years, is contained in the Agency's statutory Annual Reports for the years in question. These are available at www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk