Written question asked by Owen Paterson (Conservative) on Wednesday, 10 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 December 2008. It was answered by Alan Campbell (Labour) on Thursday, 15 January 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Serious Organised Crime Agency: Assets Recovery Agency

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases the Assets Recovery Agency transferred to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) on 31 March 2008 in which proceedings for civil recovery on taxation investigation had been initiated; what the estimated value of assets restrained in those cases was; how many of those cases were terminated by SOCA without asset recovery; what the reasons were for termination in each such case; what the estimated value of assets in cases so terminated was; how many such inherited cases not terminated have been completed by obtaining a civil recovery order or consentor; in how many such cases (a) a tax settlement been agreed and (b) a judgment from Special Commissioners has been obtained; what the value of such orders and settlements is; and what the value of assets restrained in such cases is.

Answer: Data relating to the transfer of cases from the Assets Recovery Agency to the Serious Organised Crime Agency was not collated to this level of detail, as there would be no operational value and some cost in doing so. This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost (through manual collation from case files). SOCA has terminated one case without recovering assets, where civil recovery proceedings had been initiated as at 31 March 2008. The reason for terminating the case was that there were no assets left to recover. As regards the value of civil recovery orders and tax settlements, figures for SOCA's UK-wide performance on asset recovery for the financial year 2008-09 are subject to internal validation and will be included in its Annual Report for 2008-09, when published.

Secondary information