Sequestration of Assets

(asked on 1st November 2016) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what value of criminal assets has been recovered from overseas confiscation orders in each of the last seven years.


Answered by
Ben Wallace Portrait
Ben Wallace
This question was answered on 9th November 2016

The data requested is not held centrally. The UK is committed to ensuring that criminal funds are returned to our international partners. In November 2015 the UK returned £28.7 million of the proceeds of corruption to the authorities in Macao, and the Immigration Minister recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian Government in anticipation of the return of stolen assets to Nigeria.

The Criminal Finances Bill will create new powers to help our law enforcement agencies recover criminal funds, even when the predicate crimes took place overseas and no conviction has been secured, in the form of Unexplained Wealth Orders and a power enabling the forfeiture of criminal funds held in bank accounts.

Reticulating Splines