Section 50: Serious crime prevention orders and financial reporting etc
213.Subsection (1) repeals sections 76, 77 and 78 of SOCPA which provide for the making of FROs in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. As a result, instead of a sentencing court making a stand-alone FRO under the provisions of that Act, the High Court or Crown Court (in Scotland, the High Court of Justiciary or sheriff) could, on an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions or Director of the Serious Fraud Office or, in Scotland, the Lord Advocate, attach financial reporting requirements as part of an SCPO.
214.Subsection (2) inserts new section 5A into the 2007 Act which provides for a disclosure gateway similar to that contained in section 81 of SOCPA. New section 5A makes provision for the law enforcement officer to whom reports will be made under the terms of an information requirement imposed as part of a SCPO to disclose the information to another person for the purposes of checking the accuracy of the information provided or discovering the true position (new section 5A(2)). Such a disclosure might, for example, be made to a bank or other financial institution with which the subject of the SCPO holds an account. The normal duty of confidence a bank may have in relation to one of its clients is waived by virtue of new section 5A(5). Similarly, any other person may disclose information to the law enforcement officer or a person to whom the law enforcement officer has disclosed information (new section 5A(3)). A law enforcement officer may also make disclosures of such information for the purpose of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting criminal offences (new section 5A(4)). This disclosure gateway applies to any information supplied by the subject of an SCPO in accordance with an information requirement contained in the order; whilst this will usually relate to financial information the gateway is not restricted to such information.