Have your say on the Serious Crime Bill

Do you have relevant expertise and experience or a special interest in the Serious Crime Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament?

If so, you can submit your views in writing to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee which is going to consider this Bill.

Serious Crime Bill [Lords] 2014-15

Aims of the Serious Crime Bill

The stated principal objective of the Bill is to ensure that law enforcement agencies have effective legal powers to deal with serious and organised crime. The Bill would give effect to a number of proposals and commitments made in the Government’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy (published in October 2013).

The Bill also contains provisions relating to: child abuse; female genital mutilation; violence in prisons; and terrorism. The Government also announced during the Second Reading debate that it intended to table amendments in Committee to:

strengthen the protection afforded to the victims of domestic abuse;
extend the powers of the UK courts so that those who prepare or train for terrorism abroad can be prosecuted should they return to the UK; and
confer a power on the civil courts to require mobile network operators to disconnect unauthorised mobile phones in use in prison.

The Bill is in six parts. Part 1 of the Bill would make changes aimed to strengthen the law on the recovery of the proceeds of crime. It would (amongst other things):

allow the Crown Court to make a determination on the extent of the defendant’s and any third party interests in property when making a confiscation order;
reduce the maximum time a court could allow a defendant to pay the full amount of a confiscation order;
provide for the victim surcharge to be paid ahead of any confiscation order
enable courts to make compliance orders to impose restrictions, prohibitions, or requirements (including a ban on the defendant’s travel outside the UK) for the purpose of securing that a confiscation order is effective;
increase the maximum default sentences imposed where a confiscation order for more than £500,000 remains unpaid past its due date; and
change the test applied for a restraint order to be made from “reasonable cause to believe” a defendant has benefited from their criminality to “reasonable grounds to suspect”.

Part 2 of the Bill would amend the Computer Misuse Act 1990. The Bill would update existing offences to ensure sentences for attacks on computer systems deemed to have damaged national security, human welfare, the economy or the environment reflect the damage they cause.

It has been introduced following a review designed to ensure existing legislation, such as the Computer Misuse Act 1990, remains relevant and effective and transposes the EU Directive on attacks against information systems into UK law.

Part 3 of the Bill would:

create a new offence of participating in the activities of an organised crime group;
apply Serious Crime Prevention Orders to Scotland, and allow them to be extended beyond five years or replaced in certain circumstances; and
broaden the definition of a gang used when making injunctions.

Part 4 would provide new powers to enable law enforcement agencies to enter and search premises for drug-cutting agents, and to seize and detain any chemical substance that is reasonably suspected of being intended for use for such purposes.

Part 5 would make various amendments to the offence of cruelty to children under 16 and make it an offence to be in possession of any item that contains advice or guidance about abusing children sexually.

Part 5 would also amend the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 to extend the extra-territorial offences, provide anonymity for victims of the offence, create a new civil protection order and create a new offence of failing to protect a girl from FGM.

Part 6 of the Bill would:

create an offence of unauthorised possession in a prison of any article that has a blade or is sharply pointed or any other offensive weapon;
provide for extra-territorial jurisdiction for two offences under the Terrorism Act 2006: preparation of terrorist acts and training for terrorism; and
provide for parliamentary approval of two draft Decisions of the Council of the European Union.

Follow the progress of the Serious Crime Bill [Lords]

The Serious Crime Bill was initially published in the House of Lords and completed its Parliamentary stages there on 5 November 2014. The Bill was presented to the House of Commons on 6 November 2014 and had its second reading debate on 5 January 2015, giving MPs their first opportunity to debate the main principles of the Bill.

This Bill has now been committed to a Public Bill Committee, where detailed examination of the Bill will take place. The Committee will hold its first meeting on Tuesday 13 January.

Further dates will be agreed once the Bill Committee has met, although Bill Committees usually meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Public Bill Committee is expected to finish and report the Bill to the House by Thursday 22 January 2015.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration. The Committee is expected to meet for the first time on Tuesday 13 January; it will stop receiving written evidence at the end of the Committee stage on Thursday 22 January.

Please note: When the Public Bill Committee reports, it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it could report earlier than Thursday 22 January 2015.

What should written evidence cover?

Your submission should address matters contained within the Bill and concentrate on issues where you have a special interest or expertise, and factual information of which you would like the Committee to be aware.

It is helpful if the submission includes a brief introduction about you or your organisation. The submission should not have been previously published or circulated elsewhere.

If you have any concerns about your submission, please contact the Scrutiny Unit (details below).

How should written evidence be submitted?

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk. Please note that submissions sent to the Government department in charge of the Bill will not be treated as evidence to the Public Bill Committee.

Submissions should be in the form of a Word document. A summary should be provided. Paragraphs should be numbered, but there should be no page numbering.

Essential statistics or further details can be added as annexes, which should also be numbered. To make publication easier, please avoid the use of coloured graphs, complex diagrams or pictures.

As a guideline, submissions should not exceed 3,000 words.

Please include in the covering email the name, address, telephone number and email address of the person responsible for the submission. The submission should be dated.

What will happen to my evidence?

The written evidence will be circulated to all Committee Members to inform their consideration of the Bill.

Most submissions will also be published on the internet as soon as possible after the Committee has started sitting.

The Scrutiny Unit can help with any queries about written evidence.

Scrutiny Unit contact details

Email: scrutiny@parliament.uk
Telephone: 020 7219 8387
Fax: 020 7219 8381
Address: Ian Hook
Senior Executive Officer
Scrutiny Unit, 7 Millbank
London SW1P 3JA

Further information

This article was produced by the Commons Digital Outreach Team. Follow the @HouseofCommons on Twitter for updates on the UK House of Commons Chamber.