Proceeds of Crime

(asked on 27th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Serious Fraud Office in recovering the proceeds of crime.


Answered by
Alex Chalk Portrait
Alex Chalk
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
This question was answered on 3rd February 2022

The SFO continues to perform well in recovering proceeds of crime. It has a specialist division, dedicated solely to proceeds of crime casework, including restraint and confiscation, civil recovery, and money laundering investigations and prosecutions.

In 2019-20, over £13m in financial orders were obtained by the SFO. In 2020-21, over £7.3m in financial orders were obtained.

Annual asset recovery figures published by the Home Office show that in 2020-21, the SFO recovered the fourth highest amount of the 100+ UK agencies that recover the proceeds of crime, and they also placed fourth over the entire six years that the data covers. This is a remarkable achievement for what is a relatively small organisation.

Reticulating Splines