Asset Recovery
Increasing the recovery of assets acquired through criminal activity is one of the Government's key Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets. The strategy aims to reassure the public that crime does not pay; increase public confidence; reduce harm; deter, disrupt and detect criminals; remove criminal role models; and secure compensation for victims of crime.
Indicator 5 of PSA24 is to recover criminal assets worth £250 million by 2009/10 with an interim target of £200 million in 2008/09. Asset recovery comprises:
- Confiscation (about 70% of monies recovered in 2007/08);
- Cash forfeiture (about 23%);
- Civil recovery and tax recovery (about 7%);
- International recovery (less than 1%).
Local Criminal Justice Boards have targets for the confiscation element.
Confiscation Orders
To meet the national asset recovery target of £250 million, we will need to collect approximately £150 million from the enforcement of confiscation orders in 2009/10 (excluding compensation, which does not count towards the overall asset recovery target).
Confiscation orders are obtained and enforced by various agencies at local, regional and national level. At the local level, Local Criminal Justice Boards have set themselves challenging targets for the value collected from the enforcement of confiscation orders and also for the volume and value of new confiscation and restraint orders obtained at court (the pipeline targets).
LCJBs' confiscation enforcement targets aggregate to a figure for all LCJBs to collect of £71.4 million (including compensation). Only HMCS and CPS Branch are responsible for meeting the LCJB 2009/10 target.
LCJBs' confiscation pipeline targets aggregate to the aim of obtaining 4,743 confiscation orders with a value of £106.7 million and 1,062 restraint orders.