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STATES OF JERSEY
DRAFT PROCEEDS OF CRIME (JERSEY) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 202- (P.39/2025): COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 16th June 2025
by the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel
STATES GREFFE
2025 P.39 Com.
COMMENTS
The Draft Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Amendment Regulations 202- [P.39/2025] (hereafter referred to as the "draft Regulations") was lodged au Greffe on 13th May 2025 by the Minister for External Relations (the Minister) and is scheduled for debate at the States' sitting commencing on 24th June 2025. The Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel (hereafter referred to as "the Panel") has formed these comments to aid in the Assembly's considerations, having received further information following written correspondence with the Minister. 1
The Panel was contacted by the relevant Government Officer on 8th May 2025 outlining that the draft Regulations, if made, will amend Article 34 of the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999 (hereafter referred to as the 1999 Law), to expressly allow for the Financial Intelligence Unit (hereafter referred to as the FIU) to disclose information received about suspected criminal conduct to the Minister, for the purposes of the exercise of the Minister's functions under the Sanctions and Asset-Freezing (Jersey) Law 2019.
As outlined, in the accompanying report to the draft Regulations, this amendment to the 1999 Law is required following the inadvertent removal of the power for the FIU to disclose the information to the Minister.
The Minister has confirmed that the removal of the power for the FIU to disclose the information to the Minister was unintentionally introduced through the Proceeds of Crime (Financial Intelligence (Amendment) (Jersey) Regulations 2022 adopted by the Assembly on 31st March 2022; 2 being commenced through Act on 25th July 2023.3 These Regulations, amongst other points, removed provisions relating to the involvement of the Attorney General in authorisation of disclosure of relevant information from the FUI, and it had been this authorisation that had allowed provision of information by the FUI to the Minister.
The Minster outlines that the change had been made to ensure that the independence and autonomy required of the FIU was not impeded, and that there was never an intention to prevent the Minister from being authorised to obtain the information
The Panel also requested confirmation as to whether any further amendments are expected to be required and it has been confirmed that no further unintended implications have been highlighted to the Minister.
Conclusion
The Panel, noting the inadvertent nature of the removal for data sharing between the FUI and the Minister, and the necessity for this information sharing to take place for the purposes of fulfilling the Minister's functions, is in agreement with the draft Regulations.
1 Letter - Draft Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Amendment Regulations - 9 June 2025 2 P.32/2022
Page - 2
P.39/2025 Com.