Government moves ahead with organised crime bill
Plans to tackle organised crime and create a UK version of the FBI are to be revealed in detail today.
Only a day after the plans were announced in the Queen’s Speech, the Government is pressing ahead with the publication of the Organised Crime and Police Bill.
The bill will establish the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) to crack down on drugs and gun smuggling, people trafficking and other organised crime.
Full details will be available this afternoon.
Plans for the agency were first announced in a white paper in March this year by the Home Secretary David Blunkett. Then, he said that the SOCA would work closely with specialist prosecutors, police forces, border agencies and the Assets Recovery Agency to target organised crime leaders and make “the UK one of the most difficult environments in the world for organised criminals to operate.”
Bill Hughes, who currently heads the National Crime Squad, has already been appointed to head the new agency which will take over from the National Crime Squad and the National Criminal Intelligence Service and draw officers from investigation teams at the Immigration Service and HM Customs and Excise.
Sir Stephen Lander, who previously headed MI5 will chair the new agency.
The bill forms part of a heavy Home Office legislative agenda, including plans to introduce ID cards, which has led to criticism that Labour is indulging in hyperbole on crime and security.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Blunkett rejected this criticism. He said: “This is not about the politics of fear, but taking sensible and common-sense measures to protect people. These measures will make communities safer and strengthen democracy. They will enable law-abiding citizens to live free from disorder and crime. By doing so, they will provide the backcloth to progressive policies which offer opportunity and fulfilment in place of insecurity and fear.”
