SOCA: the skills of non-traditional investigators, such as lawyers, to be harnessed

Solicitors this week welcomed the government's announcement of a serious organised crime agency (SOCA) - likely to employ many lawyers - but there was confusion as to how its role will dovetail with that of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Simultaneously, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that a new elite cadre of public lawyers would be recruited to assist the Customs & Excise prosecution team - that will become independent at the end of this year - in conducting SOCA prosecutions.

SOCA will take over the roles of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the intelligence and investigation wings of Customs & Excise, and the Home Office's immigration investigation team.

It will focus on serious crime involving firearms, money laundering, drugs, people smuggling, extortion, counterfeiting and cyber-crime.

A Home Office spokeswoman said SOCA would be created by April 2006 at the earliest and would comprise about 5,000 staff.

She could not confirm how many lawyers would be hired, but Home Secretary David Blunkett said in a statement that SOCA would 'harness the skills of non-traditional investigators like accountants and legal experts'.

Christopher Murray, a partner at City firm Kingsley Napley, said: 'It sounds like an eminently sensible move because there have been considerable problems investigating organised crime.

It needs to become a body that can attack and fight using the law.'

Mike Potts, a partner at niche London-based crime firm Byrne & Partners, said: 'Often the police do not have a handle on what they are investigating.

If you've got civilian investigators, that will be a good thing.'

But he added: 'How is it going to work in tandem with the SFO? There is no clear guidance on the divide between the two organisations.'

A CPS spokeswoman said the SFO, which prosecutes high-value and complex frauds, will work closely with SOCA, and added that the new cadre of CPS prosecutors would be recruited and specially trained to handle complex prosecutions.

Jeremy Fleming