The Conservative Party has announced plans to merge the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) with the National Crime Agency (NCA). In its 2017 election manifesto, the Conservatives say merging the two organisations will ‘strengthen Britain’s response to white collar crime … improving intelligence sharing and bolstering the investigation of serious fraud, money laundering and financial crime’. The former head of the SFO anti-corruption and proceeds of crime unit called the move a ‘backward step’ which destroys the momentum the SFO has built with its use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs).
Commenting on the Conservative Party plans Robert Amaee, the former SFO head of anti-corruption and proceeds of crime and now Quinn Emanuel partner, said the move will fundamentally alter the SFOs specialist nature.
‘This move will split apart specialist investigators and prosecutors, something that was the cornerstone of Lord Roskill’s model which set up the SFO, and hands their work load to the already overburdened NCA and Crown Prosecution Service,’ he said.
He continued: ‘The work that the SFO is currently undertaking will, under these plans, end up having to compete for resource and priority with other incredibly important work at the NCA, including the combatting of terrorism, narcotics trafficking, human tracking and sexual exploitation.’
During her time as Home Secretary Theresa May was understood to have made attempts to fold the SFO into the NCA. Amaee said: ‘The disbanding of the SFO has been a long-standing goal of Theresa May, and it seems that now, with the outcome of the UK’s general election seemingly a foregone conclusion, she has grabbed her opportunity with both hands.’
David Corker, partner at Corker Binning, called the pledge ‘a pity’ saying that under its current director, SFO was proving ‘its effectiveness as a specialist economic crime enforcer’.
‘Its work on overseas bribery and raising corporate standards in that regard is world-class.’
He continued: ‘The NCA has not yet proved its effectiveness and there is a great danger that the fight against fraud would be compromised if the SFO’s work was absorbed into its broad remit.’
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