My Lords, in addition to the draft Terrorism Act 2000 (Code of Practice for Authorised Officers) Order 2024, I shall speak to the following three draft statutory instruments: the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Search, Recovery of Cryptoassets and Investigations: Codes of Practice) Regulations 2024; the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Investigative Powers of Prosecutors: Code of Practice) Order 2024; and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and Terrorism Act 2000 (Certain Information Orders: Code of Practice) Regulations 2024.
Before I address the contents of these SIs, I will give some background. The Government are firmly committed to tackling all forms of economic crime. We already undertook unprecedented action to prevent kleptocrats and organised criminals abusing our open economy when we expedited the passage of the economic crime Act through Parliament in 2022. The Home Office measures in that Act reformed the unexplained wealth orders regime to improve transparency of ownership structures and to allow more time for law enforcement to review material relating to unexplained wealth orders.
Building on that Act, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 contains a wide range of reforms both to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and to terrorist financing legislation through the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 and the Terrorism Act 2000. These reforms include: powers to allow the effective seizure of both criminal and terrorist crypto assets; reforms to enable targeted information sharing to tackle money laundering and remove reporting burdens on businesses; new intelligence gathering powers for law enforcement; and provisions to reform outdated criminal corporate liability laws.
The reforms to the unexplained wealth orders regime and corporate liability laws and reforms to enable targeted information sharing and reduce reporting burdens are already in force. The new offence of failure to prevent fraud will be brought into force once government guidance has been published and businesses have familiarised themselves with it. We intend to publish the guidance shortly. Most of the remaining Home Office measures will be commenced on 26 April 2024.
Today, we will debate the statutory instruments that underpin the codes of practice for those measures. Therefore, with respect, I do not intend to cover the powers themselves, as they were debated extensively in both Houses during the passage of the Act.
Four draft affirmative instruments, including one laid by the Attorney-General’s Office, are required to update six codes of practice. Four existing codes of practice are being revised and two new ones are being made. This includes a search, seizure and detention of property code, issued by the Home Secretary to guide the exercise of search and seizure powers in the context of criminal confiscation investigations for officers operating in England and Wales. It also includes two codes to guide the exercise of search and seizure powers. One is issued under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the other is issued under the Terrorism Act 2000, in relation to powers in the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. These codes are to guide law enforcement in the use of these powers for civil forfeiture and counterterrorism investigations. These codes are also issued by the Home Secretary. It also includes two codes to guide the exercise of powers to investigate suspected criminal property. One code is issued by the Home Secretary and an equivalent code for prosecutors is issued by the Attorney-General for England and Wales and the Advocate-General for Northern Ireland. The final code being introduced by these draft instruments is a new code to guide National Crime Agency officers on the appropriate use of new information order powers. This code is issued by the Home Secretary under both the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Terrorism Act 2000.
The codes clarify the circumstances in which the powers may be exercised to ensure that they are applied consistently. This is of vital importance given the broad range of law enforcement agencies to which the powers apply. The use of the powers in these codes of practice may impact upon individuals’ rights and should therefore be proportionate to the outcome sought. Guidance on the exercise of the powers in these codes is required to safeguard against improper use.
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Terrorism Act 2000 mandate that the Secretary of State must publish a draft code, consider any representations made and modify the draft in the light of such representations, prior to laying revised codes. The draft codes we are debating were therefore subject to separate public consultations. Information on the consultations can be found in the Explanatory Memoranda that accompany these statutory instruments.
In conclusion, these four draft instruments are required to deliver on the Government’s objective to complete commencement of the 2022 and 2023 Acts. This will ensure that all necessary legislation is in place and that
there is legal certainty for the judiciary, respondents and the legal profession as to how cases will be dealt with before the courts. I beg to move.