Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of establishing a multi-year ringfenced Economic Crime Fighting Fund to help ensure that assets recovered from the proceeds of crime and from related fines are reinvested into law enforcement agencies.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Government recognises the significant harm caused by economic crime and remains fully committed to ensuring that law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to tackle this threat effectively.

The Home Office already provides substantial and sustained funding for economic crime enforcement through existing mechanisms, including the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS) and the Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy. ARIS enables a proportion of recovered assets to be reinvested directly into frontline asset recovery work, while the Levy provides multi‑year funding to strengthen anti‑money laundering capabilities across the system. The Levy provides a sustainable source of funding to tackle economic crime, and was raised at Budget 2025 to provide an additional c.£110m annually.

In December 2025, the Government published its Anti‑Corruption Strategy, which sets out a whole of government approach to tackling corruption, illicit finance and kleptocracy. The Strategy includes a clear commitment to explore options for strengthening economic crime funding, recognising the importance of sustainable resourcing to deliver these objectives. The Government will publish the new Economic Crime Plan 2026–29 in Summer 2026, bringing together the Government’s economic crime strategies in a single strategic framework and setting out its approach to sustainable funding.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide a list of the companies her Department had contracts with between January 2025 - January 2026 to develop AI-powered tools that assist law enforcement in the recovery of the proceeds of crime.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office provides funding, guidance and national support to encourage the responsible adoption of AI across policing, but procurement is undertaken directly by forces to meet local operational needs. This reflects the fact that operational decisions, including commercial arrangements for policing tools, are a matter for operationally independent Chief Constables and law enforcement agencies rather than Ministers.

As a result, the Home Office does not hold a central record of individual contracts or suppliers used by police forces or the National Crime Agency, including where AI services have been procured to support asset recovery or other law enforcement activity.

The Police Reform White Paper, published in January, set out the UK Government’s commitment to strengthen transparency around police use of AI. Through the establishment of the National Centre for AI in Policing and an investment of £115 million over the next 3 years, the UK Government will support the identification, testing and responsible scaling of AI technologies. As part of this the AI Centre will publish and maintain a public facing registry of the AI tools being deployed by police forces, alongside information on the steps taken to test and evaluate those tools prior to operational use, helping to build and maintain public confidence in policing’s use of AI.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide a breakdown of the value of assets recovered through confiscation, forfeiture and civil recovery orders between April 2025 - October 2025.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The annual publication covering the assets recovered through different types of powers including confiscation, forfeiture and civil recovery orders for the financial year 2025/2026, including April 2025 - October 2025, has been pre-announced and will be released in September 2026.

The official statistical announcement can be found here: Asset recovery statistics: financial years ending 2020 to 2026 - Official statistics announcement - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish a list of companies which provided AI services to Police Forces and the National Crime Agency between January 2025 - January 2026.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office provides funding, guidance and national support to encourage the responsible adoption of AI across policing, but procurement is undertaken directly by forces to meet local operational needs. This reflects the fact that operational decisions, including commercial arrangements for policing tools, are a matter for operationally independent Chief Constables and law enforcement agencies rather than Ministers.

As a result, the Home Office does not hold a central record of individual contracts or suppliers used by police forces or the National Crime Agency, including where AI services have been procured to support asset recovery or other law enforcement activity.

The Police Reform White Paper, published in January, set out the UK Government’s commitment to strengthen transparency around police use of AI. Through the establishment of the National Centre for AI in Policing and an investment of £115 million over the next 3 years, the UK Government will support the identification, testing and responsible scaling of AI technologies. As part of this the AI Centre will publish and maintain a public facing registry of the AI tools being deployed by police forces, alongside information on the steps taken to test and evaluate those tools prior to operational use, helping to build and maintain public confidence in policing’s use of AI.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what the (a) annual budget and (b) number of staff was for the Crown Prosecution Service Specialist Proceeds of Crime unit in each of the last five years.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The annual budget and number of staff for the Crown Prosecution Service Proceeds of Crime Division in each of the last five years are as follows:

*Historical figures from the CPS financial planning system Anaplan do not date back to FY22

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what the (a) annual budget and (b) number of staff was for the Crown Prosecution Service Specialist Fraud Division in each of the last five years.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) cannot provide the annual budget and number of staff for the Specialist Fraud Division (SFD) in each of the last five years. Some organisational restructuring to meet the challenges posed by the evolving nature of crime was required at the end of 22/23, leading to SFD becoming subsumed by the multidisciplinary Serious Economic, Organised Crime and International Directorate (SEOCID).

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her department will publish its new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery (AMLAR) strategy.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Following the completion of Economic Crime Plan 2, the Government will publish its new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery (AMLAR) Strategy this summer. The strategy is being developed jointly by the Home Office, HM Treasury and in close partnership with the private sector, and will set out a series of ambitious measures to strengthen the UK’s response to money laundering and improve our approach to asset recovery.

The AMLAR Strategy will be published alongside the new Economic Crime Plan 2026–29, which will bring together the Government’s economic crime strategies in a single strategic framework and drive forward key cross‑cutting initiatives.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she provide a breakdown of the value of the assets recovered from the five Unexplained Wealth Orders that were obtained in 2024-2025.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Of the five unexplained wealth orders reported in the 2024-2025 annual report, two have so far resulted in asset recovery outcomes.

In one case, following an order obtained by the Serious Fraud Office, a property identified in the order was sold for £1.1 million.

In a separate case, the National Crime Agency reached a settlement with the defendant, Binghai Su, which is expected to result in the recovery of around £20 million once forfeited assets are sold.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much and what proportion of the budget for the international corruption unit within the National Crime Agency came from (a) Official Development Assistance through the UK Action Against Corruption Programme and (b) other non-aid funding sources in financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26; and what work was funded by non-aid funding sources.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The International Corruption Unit receives approximately 76% of its funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s ‘Official Development Assistance’ budget.

ODA funds are used in accordance with the conditions set out by the FCDO which include a focus on ‘priority countries’.

The FCDO publishes details of UKACT funding online here:
https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/programme/GB-GOV-1-300597/summary

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) annual budget and (b) number of staff was for HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service in each of the last five years.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC does not routinely publish annual budget or staffing figures for the Fraud Investigation Service.

Found: Brandreth (Conservative, Chester South and Eddisbury) (added 21 Oct 2024) 55 of 66 (83.3%) Phil Brickell