My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his helpful introduction to these detailed and important SIs. He is right to highlight the importance of tackling economic crime, which is something that we all believe we could and should be doing more about.
The four SIs that we are discussing this afternoon follow on from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act and the previous Act, the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act. As the noble Lord pointed out, there are six new or revised codes of practice on how various authorities use their powers when tackling money laundering and terrorist financing. Consultation on these changes took place last summer. I have a number of questions, which I hope the noble Lord can answer for us.
Given that the consultation on these changes took place last summer, why is it only now that the changes are being implemented, some nine months later? Given that, for some of these instruments, the consultation took place before the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act was passed, will further changes be required?
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, which gained Royal Assent over two years ago, and the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act left a significant number of changes to be made through secondary legislation. The noble Lord may have mentioned this, but what is the timetable for implementing all these various changes? There were many provisions in the primary legislation that referred to secondary legislation that would be forthcoming in due course, but what does that actually mean? When can we expect all of that, given—and the noble Lord talked about the importance of tackling economic crime—we need the supporting secondary legislation to be passed as soon as possible?
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act spans several departments. How is the Home Office working with other departments, such as the Department for Business and Trade, to bring about the effective implementation of these changes?
Can the noble Lord outline for us what assessment will be made of how the Government believe these two Acts are working in practice, and what further steps, if any, need to be taken to combat economic crime?
In reading the various codes of practice, I noticed that they refer to different law enforcement agencies. How is their activity to be co-ordinated? We have the National Crime Agency, the City of London Police as the lead for economic crime, and then we have the individual police forces. How will all that work be co-ordinated, so that it is as effective as we would all want it to be?
The Minister mentioned the impact that we hope to have on Russia-related economic crime, but what else needs to be done, given the impact that we hope economic sanctions have on Russia, particularly with respect to the conflict in Ukraine?
When I raised the issue of enforcement in respect of economic crime, I should have asked what the Government are doing to monitor the effectiveness of the Act.
Have they ensured that the consultation outcomes are easily accessible from the consultation web page, as recommended by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee? I did not find it the easiest consultation response to access, and clearly the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee also had some trouble, so can the Minister say anything more about that?
Is there any oversight of the use of these powers? I understand that, with respect to the terrorism codes of practice, it is presumably the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. Can the Minister confirm that and say whether there is any other oversight of these particular powers?
Can the Minister explain the differences in the proceeds of crime statutory instruments and their different application to the nations of the UK? The Minister will know that that is a favourite topic of mine, but I am not trying to be awkward. Clearly, for the territorial extent of the terrorism codes of practice before us, that is relatively easy because the application of those powers is UK-wide. But, on the other territorial application, some parts of the statutory instrument related to England and Wales, while other parts related to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Can the Minister give a general explanation for all that, particularly, as always, with respect to Scotland? If it is devolved and a matter for the Scottish Government—I suspect that will be the Minister’s answer—how will we ensure that the work that Scottish law enforcement does with the other law enforcement bodies across the rest of the UK has the co-ordinated effectiveness that we want?
We of course support the moves that the Government are making. We all believe that economic crime needs to be more effectively tackled, which is why we supported the various provisions contained in the primary legislation. I look forward to the Minister’s responses to my questions because, as I say, we want this to be effective and we want economic crime to be tackled in a better way than perhaps it is presently.