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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, we on this side support the making of the order. As the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, has pointed out, it is about the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which comes into existence on 1 April. We are told that the director-general may designate SOCA staff with powers. The qualifications identified are that they should be capable, adequately trained and suitable to apply for them. We have no problems with that. We need to be clear about what constitutes serious organised crime. I do not in any way underestimate the impact that serious crime has on the population in this country. We certainly do not disapprove of the tidying-up measures requested by the Minister. However, I am concerned about the fact that the anti-social behaviour order falls within the provision of Section 52 of the Act. That does not seem to me to relate to serious organised crime. I agree with the inclusion of drug trafficking and human trafficking, but we need an explanation of how ASBOs relate to this order. There is need for absolute clarity about SOCA, ASBOs and local police. We should not give powers to SOCA that in essence relate to matters for the local police. It would be helpful to have the Minister’s explanation on that.