Have your say on the Criminal Finances Bill

Criminal Finance Bill 2016

Summary of the Criminal Finances Bill:

The main measures contained in the Bill are:

1. Unexplained Wealth Orders. The Bill will enable a court to make an Unexplained Wealth Order to require an individual or organisation who is suspected of direct involvement in or association with serious criminality to explain the origin of assets, where their assets appear to be disproportionate to their known income. A failure to provide a response would give rise to a presumption that the property was recoverable, in order to assist any subsequent civil recovery action. The Bill would also allow for this power to be applied to foreign politicians or officials or those associated to them, known as Politically Exposed Persons (“PEPs”), helping to tackle the issue of the proceeds of grand corruption overseas being laundered in the UK.
2. Improved seizure and forfeiture powers. Current legislation allows law enforcement agencies to take action against criminal cash, but they are unable to do so if criminals store the proceeds of crime in bank accounts or other means, such as precious metals and jewels. There is evidence that these moveable items are being used to move value, both domestically and across international borders. The Bill will create new civil powers, similar to the existing cash seizure and forfeiture schemes in current legislation, which would close this gap. The powers will be exercisable where there is reasonable suspicion that the property is the proceeds of crime, or that it will be used in unlawful conduct in a manner similar to cash.
3. Reform to the SARs regime. The SARs regime provides a critical intelligence resource direct to the NCA from regulated companies, allowing the NCA the opportunity to approve or refuse consent to transactions that may involve the proceeds of crime. Where the NCA refuses consent, the Bill will extend the current 31 day moratorium period granted by a court, for up to six months so as to allow investigators sufficient time to gather evidence to determine whether further action, such as restraint of the funds, should take place. It will also create a power for the NCA to request further information following receipt of a SAR; or where they have received a request from a Financial Investigation Unit in another country.
4. Information Sharing. The Bill will provide for a legal gateway for the sharing of information between entities within the regulated sector (e.g. banks). This has already been happening under the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) pilot, helping the banks to build the intelligence case for suspected money laundering before they submit a report to the NCA.
5. Corporate failure to prevent tax evasion. At present, if an individual evades tax and this is facilitated by the advice or actions of those in a corporation, although the individual will have committed a crime and those directly facilitating it could be prosecuted, the corporate entity does not hold any liability. The Bill would create two new offences so that a corporation in this situation could be prosecuted – one to catch companies facilitating the evasion of UK taxes; another to cover evasion of foreign taxes facilitated by an entity that has some nexus with the UK (such as a UK-based office), and where there is dual criminality with the UK.
6. Disclosure Orders. The Bill would authorise a law enforcement officer by way of a Disclosure Order, to require someone who has relevant information in a money laundering investigation to answer questions and provide information or documents. Disclosure Orders are already used in confiscation investigations and by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in fraud investigations, and the Bill would extend their use to money laundering investigations.
7. Combatting Terrorist Finance. The Bill would also make complementary changes to the law enforcement and intelligence agency response to the threat of terrorist finance, by mirroring many of the provisions in the Bill on Disclosure Orders, and Seizure and Confiscation powers, so that they also apply for investigations into offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT).

Where does the Bill extend to?

The Bill covers the whole of the United Kingdom but some clauses apply to selected parts only. Annex C to the Explanatory Notes sets out the application of clauses to different parts of the United Kingdom and includes a note on subject matter and legislative competence of devolved administrations.

Follow the progress of the Criminal Finances Bill

The Bill was presented to the House on 15 September 2016. On Monday 24 October, the Bill received its Second Reading in the House of Commons where MPs debated the main principles of the Bill.

• Catch up on Parliament News: MPs debate the Criminal Finances Bill
• Bills before Parliament: Criminal Finances Bill 2016
• Read Explanatory Notes: Criminal Finances Bill 2016

The Bill has now been sent to a Public Bill Committee where detailed examination of the Bill will take place. The Bill Committee is expected to hold oral evidence sessions on Tuesday 15 November.

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 15 November 2016; it will stop receiving written evidence at the end of the Committee stage on Thursday 24 November 2016. Please note that when the Committee reports it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can report earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Thursday 24 November 2016.

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.

Your submission could most usefully:

• suggest amendments to the Bill with explanation; and
• (when available, probably from September) support or oppose amendments tabled or proposed to the Bill by others with explanation

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.

Those making a submission to a Bill Committee should note the following:

• Committees publish most of the written evidence they receive on the internet (where it will be accessible to search engines).
  If you do not wish your submission to be published, you must clearly say so and explain your reasons for not wishing its disclosure. The committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish. If you wish to include private or confidential information in your submission to the committee, please contact the clerk of the committee to discuss this. The Scrutiny Unit (details below) will be able to provide you with contact details for the clerk.
• A Committee is not obliged to accept your submission as evidence, nor to publish any or all of the submission even if it has been accepted as evidence. This may occur where a submission is very long or contains material to which it is inappropriate to give parliamentary privilege (see Guide for Witnesses for further information on parliamentary privilege).
• Material already published elsewhere should not form the basis of a submission, but may be referred to within a submission, in which case it should be clearly referenced, preferably with a hyperlink.
• You should be careful not to comment on matters currently before a court of law, or matters in respect of which court proceedings are imminent. If you anticipate such issues arising, you should discuss with the clerk of the committee how this might affect your submission.
• Once submitted, no public use should be made of any submission prepared specifically for the committee unless you have first obtained permission from the clerk of the committee. If you are given permission by the committee to publish your evidence separately, you should be aware that you will be legally responsible for its content.
• Evidence which is accepted by the Committee may be published online at any stage; when it is so published it becomes subject to parliamentary copyright and is protected by parliamentary privilege.
• Once you have received acknowledgement that the evidence has been published you may publicise or publish your evidence yourself. In doing so you must indicate that it was prepared for the Committee, and you should be aware that your publication or re-publication of your evidence may not be protected by parliamentary privilege.
• Public Bill Committees do not investigate individual cases of complaint or allegations of maladministration.
  

Data protection

• The personal information you supply will be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 for the purposes of attributing the evidence you submit and contacting you as necessary in connection with its processing.
• The Clerk of the House of Commons is the data controller for the purposes of the Act.
• If you have any queries or concerns about the collection and use of this information please advise the committee team providing your full contact details.
  

Scrutiny Unit contact details
Email: scrutiny@parliament.uk
Telephone: 020 7219 8387
Address: Ian Hook
Senior Executive Officer
Scrutiny Unit
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA