PIRACY
Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason money assembled in the UK to pay ransom for ships and crews taken in piracy is not subject to a suspicious activity report from the Serious Organised Crime Agency. [126600]
Mr Jeremy Browne, Minister of State, Home Office [holding answer 5 November 2012]: Although there is no UK law against the payment of ransoms in piracy cases, the Government counsels strongly against doing so, as making concessions only encourages such activity.
Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, if an individual knows or suspects they are dealing with criminal property and if they wish to obtain a statutory defence for carrying out that activity they should submit a Suspicious Activity Report to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and obtain consent. To obtain the consent of SOCA, they need to provide SOCA with sufficient information for a properly informed consent decision to be taken.
In circumstances where consent was not sought when it should have been, it is exclusively a matter for the independent prosecution authorities to consider each case on its merits, and to apply the tests of evidential sufficiency and public interest as set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.