Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many restraint orders to freeze assets were imposed in each of the last seven financial years.

The table below provides the number of restraint orders obtained in England and
Wales in each of the last seven years.

As shown in the table below, more assets have been recovered since 2010 than
previously, although prosecutors now face greater difficulties in obtaining
restraint orders following the impact of the Court of Appeal decision in
Windsor & Ors v Crown Prosecution Service [2011] EWCA Crim 143.

The Government has taken steps to address this by bringing forward provisions
in the Serious Crime Bill, which is currently before Parliament, to lower the
legal test for restraint to make it easier to obtain restraint orders earlier in
investigations. We are also working with operational partners to ensure that
the use of restraint orders is considered at the outset of all appropriate investigations.