Criminal Justice Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Official Report 572KB pdf

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Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Our next item of business is consideration of a supplementary legislative consent memorandum on the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill. I am pleased to welcome the Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance, Tom Arthur, and his officials: Sian Ledger, land reform policy and legislation team leader; George Dickson, detect and disrupt team leader; Michael Paparakis, civil law policy manager; and Patrick Down, criminal law practice and licensing unit team leader, all from the Scottish Government.

I refer members to paper 5.

I invite the minister to make his opening remarks on the supplementary LCM, after which we will move to questions.

Good morning to the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to make a few brief remarks on the supplementary legislative consent memorandum for the United Kingdom Government’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill.

Since my last appearance before the committee, on 24 May 2023, constructive engagement at official and ministerial level with the UK Government has continued and, I am pleased to report, has now resolved matters. The supplementary legislative consent memorandum lodged on Monday of this week now recommends promoting consent to all relevant provisions in the bill.

In the course of last week, a series of amendments was made to reflect the outcome of those negotiations. New amendments were also made to add new provisions relating to the register of overseas entities and the identification doctrine. As such, the bill now has a combination of consent mechanisms, consult-plus mechanisms, consult mechanisms, a sunset clause, and ministerial correspondence to offer reassurance on the policy intent of regulation-making powers relating to the forfeiture processes for crypto assets.

The Scottish Government remains fully supportive of the policy intent behind the bill and now recommends promoting consent to all the relevant provisions of the bill.

I will open up the meeting to allow members to come in with any questions.

It seems that no member wishes to ask a question. Okay. That was nice—short and sweet, and simple.

We should ask at least one. The minister has come all this way. [Laughter.]

We almost did it.

Just to put the position on the LCM into the simplest terms, for my benefit, can you confirm that you are saying that you sought changes and that those have all now effectively been agreed to and you are content with them?

Yes. We are content. There are areas in which we would have liked to have a consent mechanism rather than a consult mechanism, but we are not going to make the perfect the enemy of the good. There is broad agreement on the policy intent behind the bill. I am pleased that, through the constructive work that has taken place between officials and ministers, we have been able to arrive at this point.

A textbook example of Scotland’s two Governments working together. Brilliant. Thank you.

On that note, we will move swiftly on.

Our next item of business is consideration of any final issues that we want to raise in our report on the supplementary LCM. Again, I will open up the meeting for members to raise any specific points.

I merely say that I am intrigued to see how we will make a half-hour debate out of this subject next week. I look forward to hearing the minister’s comments.

One of the things that I would like to highlight in the report is the Scottish Government’s position that, where the UK Government intends to take powers to make secondary legislation in devolved areas, that must be accompanied by effective mechanisms to respect the devolution settlement and to recognise the responsibilities of Scottish ministers and the Scottish Parliament. Currently, the Scottish Parliament has no process for scrutinising that subordinate legislation. At this stage, it is not clear what information the Scottish Government will provide to the Parliament to facilitate such scrutiny.

I propose that we should make those points in our report. It is to be hoped that other members will agree.

Are members content for the committee to raise those points?

Can you clarify what you mean by that? Do you mean secondary legislation in the Scottish Parliament or at Westminster?

I am sorry—I did not quite hear that.

Your point was about scrutiny of secondary legislation. Do you mean secondary legislation that is passed here or that is passed at Westminster with relevance to devolved competences?

Where there is on-going dialogue between the two Governments in relation to how legislation is being developed in bills, it is not clear to me that the Scottish Parliament is aware of what those discussions might involve. It might be helpful for us to have some understanding of that process and the issues that are being raised.

Would our clerk like to add anything to that, or does that pretty much cover the position?

I will just assist the member, if that will help. The convener’s point was that, when the two Governments are in dialogue about secondary legislation that the UK Government wants to pass in devolved areas, it would be helpful for the Scottish Parliament to be better informed about that process. I hope that that helps.

That sounds very wise. Assuming that this committee would be the lead committee on any such scrutiny, that would be entirely appropriate.

I agree with that. On the new offence that will cover Scotland on encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, I do not know the background to that particular clause, but there was a very concerning case about self-harm on social media. Would that be an example of something that we would want to address?

I think that you might have jumped ahead to our next agenda item.

Oh, sorry—have I?

We have a lot on the agenda today.

I am confused, because I was expecting to see Maree Todd speak to the item. I am sorry.

No worries at all. We are getting near summer recess—that is fine.

Is the committee in agreement that the Scottish Parliament should give its consent to the relevant provisions in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, as set out in the Scottish Government’s draft motion?

Members indicated agreement.

Are members content to delegate to me the publication of a short report that summarises the outcomes of our deliberations on the LCM?

Members indicated agreement.

The issue will now move to the chamber, where it will be for all members to decide on, based on our report. I thank the minister and his officials for their attendance, which has been short and sweet.

We will have a short suspension while we await the arrival of Maree Todd.

10:09 Meeting suspended.  

10:15 On resuming—