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 an action or investigation for criminal confiscation of assets had been initiated (a) in Northern Ireland and (b) in the UK; what the estimated value of the assets restrained in those cases was; in how many such investigations SOCA has obtained a confiscation order; and what the value of assets affected by such order is.

Answer: Data relating to the transfer of cases from the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) to SOCA were not collated to this level of detail, as there would be no operational value and some cost in doing so. 29 criminal confiscation operations were opened as a result of the transfer of cases from ARA. Some operations may include multiple ARA cases relating to the same subject. Further relevant information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost (through manual collation from case files).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