Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many confiscation orders of what value were made by HM Courts against those convicted of human trafficking offences in England and Wales in each of the last three years; and how much of that money has been awarded to the victims of trafficking.

The table below shows the total number of confiscation orders and their values made against defendants where the principal offence is categorised as People Trafficking.

The figures provided are for the financial years (April to March) and are based on the original order amount imposed, and therefore some of these orders may have been subject to subsequent appeals and/or variations.

Confiscation orders are one of the key mechanisms available to the Government to deprive criminals of the proceeds of their crimes. The value of the order imposed, which is often very high, is based on the criminal benefit attributed to the crime and may, therefore, exceed the value of realisable assets that are known to the Court at the time of imposition. Crucially, an outstanding order stops the criminal benefitting from the proceeds of crime and ensures that, if the assets are discovered in the future, they can be seized.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and other enforcement agencies take the issue of recovering criminal assets very seriously and are working to ensure that clamping down on defaulters is a continued priority nationwide.

The amount defendants repaid from their criminal activity across all agencies has increased for the last six consecutive years and we are currently on course to have another highly effective year. £154.1million was collected in 2014/15 (which represented a 12% increase on the total recovered during 2013/14); as at the end of June 2015, £53 million had been recovered, which is an increase of 47% on the same period last year. After payment of compensation and external receiver’s fees, the balance is distributed across key Departments to support ongoing investigation, prosecution and enforcement activity.

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 amends the scope of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to include slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour. The Act also introduces Slavery and Trafficking Reparation Orders which can be used to award compensation to victims.

HMCTS is seeking a commercial partner to help increase collections, reduce enforcement costs and importantly, ensure more criminals pay. The improvement that the Agencies continue to make, combined with our future plans, will make sure that more criminals pay and that taxpayers get better value for money.