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 Tuesday, 13 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 were transferred by the Assets Recovery Agency to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) on 31 March 2008 in which proceedings for civil recovery or taxation had been initiated in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) the UK; what the estimated value of the assets restrained in those cases was; how many of those cases related to (i) oils and (ii) tobacco fraud; and what the value of assets was in (A) oil and (B) tobacco fraud cases so transferred.

Answer: Data relating to the transfer of cases over from the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) was not collated to this level of detail, as there would be no operational value and some cost in doing so. 147 civil recovery operations and 38 tax operations were opened as a result of the transfer of cases from ARA to SOCA. Further relevant information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost (through manual collation from case files).

Secondary information