The Serious Crime Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 5 June 2014.
The Bill builds on the current criminal and civil law to ensure that the National Crime Agency and other law enforcement agencies can continue effectively and relentlessly to pursue, disrupt and bring to justice serious and organised criminals.
The Bill will also:
- improve our ability to recover criminal assets by amending the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
- amend the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to ensure sentences for attacks on computer systems fully reflect the damage they cause
- create a new offence targeting people who knowingly participate in an organised crime group
- extend the scope of serious crime prevention orders and gang injunctions
- create new powers to seize, detain and destroy chemical substances suspected of being used as cutting agents for illegal drugs
- clarify the offence of child cruelty, in section 1 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, to make it explicit that the offence covers cruelty which causes psychological harm
- create a new offence of possessing paedophile manuals
- extend the extra-territorial reach of the offences in the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 so that they apply to habitual as well as permanent UK residents
- allow people suspected of committing an offence overseas under sections 5 (preparation of terrorism acts) or 6 (training for terrorism) of the Terrorism Act 2006 to be prosecuted in the UK.
Overarching documents on the Bill, including supplementary memorandum and fact sheets, were updated on 23 October 2014.