Abolition of the Serious Fraud Office could cause “significant disruption” to investigations, leading UK lawyers, including a former solicitor general, have warned the prime minister.
The warning came in response to the Conservative party’s election pledge to fold the SFO, which focuses on corruption and white-collar crime, into the wider National Crime Agency.
On Tuesday, a group of 19 leading silks, along with top criminal lawyers and anti-corruption campaigners, wrote to Theresa May, calling for a public consultation on the proposed shake-up. They said there would be “enormous” risks to changing the current structure.
If done in the wrong way, the change could lead to “significant damage” to the UK’s effectiveness in tackling economic crime and affect co-operation from other agencies, such as the US Department of Justice, the lawyers added.
Any structural changes risked “significant disruption to current investigations”, they said.
The SFO is investigating Barclays Bank’s dealings with Qatar at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, among other cases.
The lawyers also raised concerns about damage to staff morale and warned: “The departure of white-collar expertise from the SFO to the private sector could take many years to recover.”
Folding the SFO into the NCA, which reports directly to ministers and has its budget overseen by the Home Office, could lead to the loss of powers crafted for the SFO to fight economic crime, they added. The changes could also “lead to perceptions of political interference in economic crime investigations”.
The SFO, created in 1988 in response to a series of City scandals, reports to the UK attorney-general’s office. Unlike the NCA, it has investigators and prosecutors under one roof.
By contrast, the NCA has a wider remit ranging from paedophilia to cyber crime to human trafficking.
In their letter, the lawyers also questioned whether deferred prosecution agreements — US-style plea bargains where companies pay fines to escape criminal prosecution — would be as effective without the SFO.
“The SFO has brought in excess of £600m to the public purse through the use of these agreements,” they said.
The list of signatories to the letter represents some of the most eminent lawyers working in the field of white-collar crime.
As well as Sir Edward Garnier QC, a former Tory MP who was solicitor general in the coalition government, signatories include Mukul Chawla QC, the barrister who led the successful prosecution of Tom Hayes, the ex-banker who was jailed for 11 years for Libor manipulation.
The list also includes Sasha Wass QC, who secured the conviction of Kweku Adoboli, the rogue UBS trader, in 2012, and Lord Ken Macdonald QC, a former director of public prosecutions, and Hugo Keith QC, a barrister who was leading counsel to the inquests into the 7/7 London bombings in 2005.
Solicitors who have signed the letter include Stephen Parkinson, partner at Kingsley Napley, the law firm, and a former lawyer at the attorney-general’s office, as well as Ben Rose, founding partner at Hickman & Rose, the law firm.
Mrs May has long held the view the SFO should be part of the NCA. As home secretary, she tried to execute her plan in 2011 but was blocked by Ken Clarke, then justice secretary, and Dominic Grieve, then attorney-general.
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