Oral Answers to Questions

Andy Slaughter Excerpts

Thursday 1st February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

1. What steps she is taking to help ensure effective prosecution of perpetrators of fraud and economic crime.

[Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

4. What steps she is taking to help ensure effective prosecution of perpetrators of fraud and economic crime.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

9. What recent steps her Department has taken to increase prosecution rates for fraud and economic crime.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Solicitor General]

My hon. Friend raises an excellent point. I commend him for his work on the Home Affairs Committee and look forward to the results of that work, which we will consider carefully. The Attorney General and I meet regularly with the SFO and the CPS to assess best practice and to see where lessons may be learned, both internally and from abroad. Intelligence sharing goes on between the respective agencies in any event, and we will look at what lessons can be learned from best practice here and abroad to take forward the points he raises.

[Andy Slaughter]

In the past five years, law enforcement agencies, including the CPS proceeds of crime unit, have confiscated £568 million from criminals. Those agencies get to keep a tiny percentage of recovered assets and virtually no fines to help them continue their work. Why are the Government enfeebling the very organisation it relies on to win the fight against economic crime? Why will they not adopt Labour’s invest-to-save model of enforcement?

[The Solicitor General]

I commend the work of the enforcement agencies, which have rightly cracked down on the fraudulent activity the hon. Gentleman refers to. He is right that the Government have tirelessly pursued criminals with a view to recouping money, to prevent those criminals from benefiting from their ill-gotten gains. Among a number of positive outcomes has been £105 million being returned to victims.