Serious Crime Bill [HL]

There may be orders referable to individuals’ business dealings; for instance, providing that they comply with or give information to Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise or SOCA. That is not a usual bail condition. It would be much easier for the court—and, one imagines, more proportionate, particularly if we suggest that there is some interference with the individual’s business activity—if the Serious Organised Crime Agency were put to the trouble of going to a High Court judge, who could balance these issues and see whether it was a proportionate and reasonable response. The provision does not mean that some of these conditions could not be bail conditions, because they could, but some of them might be better placed, and the response might be more proportionate, if they were made under a High Court judge’s determination, particularly in relation to business issues, which could be better balanced. These are tools. By creating these orders, we will put another tool in the prosecution’s tool box, but the provision does not mean that all the tools have to be used in any given case. The most judicious judgment will have to be made about which tool needs to be used in any individual case with which the Serious Organised Crime Agency is dealing.