It has an innocuous, indeed rather friendly-sounding name, but SID (or the Scottish Intelligence Database as it is formally known) has a serious role to play, along with Police Scotland's crime map, in the fight against organised crime. The crime map lists some 3500 people suspected of being involved in underworld networks and the police can use SID to help co-ordinate their efforts against them. But now, thanks to a welcome change to the way both Police Scotland and HM Revenue and Customs work, many more of the men and women on the map could be about to face the consequences of their criminal activities, with potentially positive consequences for the rest of us too.
The change is not an entirely surprising adjustment for HM Revenue and Customs to make, as it has always been involved in law enforcement, but traditionally it has focused on maximising the tax take for the Exchequer while the police have focused on catching people. Now, in the new shift in tactics, HMRC has been going through the tax affairs of the top 20 per cent of the names flagged up on the crime map with a view not just to securing any tax they may be avoiding but also to disrupting their activities and those of the seemingly legitimate lawyers and accountants, and others, who help them.
How Herald cartoonist Camley saw the standoff between Mr Big and the taxman.
The new way of working is partly circumstantial – HMRC and Police Scotland now share a base at the Gartcosh crime campus and are able to share intelligence like never before – but it is also strategic and Kenny MacAskill, former Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Government, deserves credit for encouraging it. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 provided for the confiscation of the money made from crime and what it is spent, and has had some success, but, when he had the justice portfolio, Mr MacAskill also sought to focus on the harm that is done by organised crime and putting it right.
There are good reasons for shifting the focus in this way. The criminals named in the crime map will have to explain, for example, how they paid for that nice house in Spain or the fleet of nice cars, but by making life hard for the criminals and their associates, the HMRC/Police Scotland operation could also make life easier for legitimate businesses. There are many shops and offices on the high street that look legal and legitimate from the front but are crooked and illegal in reality and if the police and tax authorities can disrupt those operations, legitimate businesses should flourish in their place.
One potential problem is that it will not be easy to judge the success of the operation because by their nature, the activities of organised criminals are hidden. But if the police and HMRC, using the crime map and SID, do succeed in disrupting the activities of at least some of the most serious offenders, the success may show, in the end, in Scotland's economic performance because we know that countries with lower levels of organised crime do better economically while, conversely, high levels of organised impact massively on the amount of tax a country collects. We are still a long way from seeing such a positive outcome, but the chance of it happening is a good reason for Police Scotland and HMRC to vigorously pursue their new strategy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here