Current status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce will report its findings.
The Serious Organised Crime Taskforce aims to identify priorities for tackling serious organised crime in Scotland by making recommendations to Scottish ministers; sharing best practice; improving co-ordination between the law enforcement agencies, and making proposals for legislation and other measures to tackle serious organised crime.
There have been a number of announcements of recommendations and priorities following taskforce discussions. For example, we have already announced our intention to bring forward proposals for offences of directing or being involved in organised crime; that we are reinvesting a proportion of proceeds of crime back into asset recovery work; that I have written to the Home Secretary with suggestions for strengthening the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and we have drawn attention to some recent successes by the agencies involved in tackling organised crime. Copies of the news releases are available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases.
We will publish our proposals for legislative change when it is appropriate to do so.