Crime and Policing Bill

Baroness Goudie Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 20th January 2026 Lords Chamber

As it stands, there is a significant gap in the law in the UK which prevents victims seeking compensation. Amendment 417 seeks to close that gap, and it is a great pleasure to support the noble Lord, Lord Banner.

[Baroness Goudie (Lab)]

I support the noble Lord, Lord Banner, on Amendments 417 and 419. I will not repeat what I and my colleagues have said many times in this House. I am, however, most anxious about the compensation money that does not go to these countries and these people. We are told that it is in the Treasury in some cases; we ask about interest; and we have had a debate with, and letters from, the noble Lord, Lord Livermore. But these amendments could really change things, so that everybody would know where the interest is going, where the money for the victims is going, where it is held, how it is given, how it is sent, and who is in receipt of it. This is vital, because we can see what is happening in Ukraine, which will need much more support; and we know that this is happening in Russia and elsewhere.

Also, we work on the case of the DRC all the time; we know what is happening there and in other countries. It is vital that this be included in the Bill. It would make such a difference to so many people around the world, and it would deal with the perpetrators. So I hope the Government will look at this. Finally, I would like to thank Redress for all the support it has given to us, along with writing to the departments and so on.

Crime and Policing Bill

Baroness Goudie Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 11th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goudie (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, and the noble Lord, Lord Banner. I thank the Minister and his officials for all they have done on this clause. Might the Minister look at this again before Third Reading or at some other point to see whether it is possible to do what we have requested? I am grateful for all the meetings and the help we have had from everybody; let us hope that we can do something.

[Lord Clement-Jones (LD)]

My Lords, we support in principle Amendments 387C and 387D, the first of which was moved by the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Banner.

These amendments address a moral and legal imperative, ensuring that assets confiscated from those who violate our laws, particularly our sanctions regime, are used to provide redress to the victims of those very same violations. My own amendment in Committee focused on a ministerial power to create a fund via regulations but Amendments 387C and 387D would place this power where I believe it properly belongs: with the judiciary. By amending the Sentencing Act 2020 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, these amendments would grant the Crown Court the discretion to award compensation for public interest or social purposes. This would ensure that, when a court deprives a defendant of the benefits of their crime, it can simultaneously direct those funds towards the restoration of the communities or individuals harmed.

As the organisation Redress has highlighted with great clarity, the UK is currently an outlier. Both the United States and the European Union have already established mechanisms to repurpose seized assets. In 2023, the US successfully transferred over $4 million seized from a Russian oligarch to support war veterans in Ukraine. Here in the UK, we have frozen assets on an unprecedented scale following the invasion of Ukraine, yet we operate in a regulatory lacuna where we can freeze and eventually confiscate but we cannot compensate effectively. Without these amendments, we are, in effect, telling the victims of state-sponsored aggression and human rights abuses that, although we will punish the perpetrator, we will do nothing for the survivor.

This is not about the convenience of the state; it is about clarity of justice. We must move away from a system that treats the proceeds of sanctions violations as a windfall for the Treasury and instead treat them as a resource for reparations. I urge the Minister to recognise that there is cross-party unanimity on this issue. Sympathy at the Dispatch Box in Committee was a start, but sympathy does not stop crime—and it certainly does not provide reparations.