Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Ian Levy (Blyth Valley) (Con)]

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Serious Fraud Office’s response to the covid-19 outbreak.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Serious Fraud Office’s response to the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Solicitor General (Michael Ellis)]

The Serious Fraud Office responded quickly to the disruption caused by covid, and it has continued to progress casework during this period. Notably, it has achieved a conclusion of the prosecutions in the Unaoil case, reached a deferred prosecution agreement with G4S, laid charges in the GPT case and obtained asset confiscation orders in other cases. The SFO’s ability to maintain operational effectiveness during covid was recognised in the report on its response to the pandemic that was published by the Crown Prosecution Service inspectorate.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

Flight Officer Blackman, you are clear to land.

[Bob Blackman [V]]

Thank you, ground control.

I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for his answers thus far. Will he go a bit further on the recent deferred prosecution agreements, including those with G4S and with Airbus? What assessment has he made of the benefits of DPAs as a tool for prosecuting those accused of such offences?

[The Solicitor General]

I thank my hon. Friend. DPAs are very important. They are extremely powerful tools that hold companies to account, and the SFO remains committed to using them. Since 2014, the SFO has agreed eight DPAs, five of which were for overseas corruption offences. The total value to the Treasury of all eight DPAs was around £1.58 billion, so I do hope that Her Majesty’s Treasury is listening; they bring large sums of money into the Exchequer.