Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I reiterate what I said in my Answer to the Question: we are fully committed to funding PIPCU. As the noble Lord knows, when PIPCU was set up in 2013, the intention was that the Government would fund it for a short period of time and that subsequently it would be funded by the rights holders as the insurance industry organised itself. This is not the case, so we are having to look at alternative means of supporting the unit. However, as I have said, those who work in PIPCU need have no concerns about whether the Government are fully committed to it.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my interests in both policing and trading standards. Could the Minister tell us how many prosecutions this highly successful PIPCU has carried out in the past year and what proportion of those prosecutions was directed at the producers and wholesalers of fake goods, as opposed—simply and more easily—to those caught trading in counterfeit goods?