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Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Application and Modification of Certain Enactments to Designated Staff of SOCA) Order 2006

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for setting out briefly what the order does. Of course we support the making of the   order. Naturally, it is of great importance that we should tackle effectively serious organised crime in the United Kingdom. That is why we supported the creation of the agency in the first place and agreed to the Bill, now an Act, having an expedited process in the wash-up period before the last general election. We agree with the Minister that serious organised crime is a blight on the lives of so many people in our society, both economically and socially. The direct economic damage attributed to serious organised crime is estimated to be at least £20 billion per year. It makes up a significant proportion—probably more than half—of the total amount of crime committed in this country. The agency should be in a unique position, as its officers will not be police officers, Revenue and Customs officers or immigration officers, apart from a small number of secondees, but they will be able to exercise the same powers. On Second Reading of the Bill that created the agency, we expressed concern that civilians would be given police, customs and immigration powers. We then sought clarification on the checks that would exist in the legislation to ensure that civilians empowered in that way are given adequate training. All checks to ensure that they receive appropriate training and are capable and suitable to exercise the powers are important. The order enshrines the principle that civilian staff may be given those powers. That has been agreed and we do not question it. We raised some matters about the detail of the impact of the order in another place, and I would be grateful for the Government’s response to those. For example, how many employees are likely to be affected by the order? I understand that, potentially, there will be 4,000 employees in the agency. So how many are we talking about? Which duties would they not be able to do were it not for this order? It would be helpful to the House to be given a flavour of the powers that will be exercised. Can the Minister give me further assurance about the measures, which I hope are already under way, to ensure that the checks and balances, to which I referred with regard to training and other matters, will be applied to civilians who are designated with powers under the order? Of course we must know that the powers that we usually entrust to professionals, such as customs officers, are exercised with due care and discretion. I support the making of the order.