[holding answer 22 February 2008]: The Crown Prosecution Service, Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office and Serious Fraud Office all receive a share of funding to incentivise the confiscation element of asset recovery. It is not possible to identify a specific return on specific investment, as asked. Confiscation is a co-operative activity involving investigators and court enforcement as well as prosecutors and the results from individual cases can take some time to feed through. But the funding supports the significant and increasing role which prosecutors play in meeting the Government’s target of doubling the amount of money it recovers from criminals from £125 million in 2006-07 to £250 million in 2009-10.
The increases will fund all aspects of confiscation activity, including protecting assets from dissipation during the lifetime of a case, securing confiscation orders once offenders have been convicted and in a number of instances enforcing orders.