Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many outstanding confiscation orders were written off in each year since 2010.

The volume of confiscation orders reduced or written off from 2010 to 2013 is recorded in Table A below, while the value of amounts reduced or written off is recorded in Table B.

Table A

Table B

Below are explanations of the limited ways an outstanding confiscation order can be reduced or written off.

Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986 (DTOA) Default Served – Serving the default sentence of up to 10 years for non payment of a confiscation order under this pre-Proceeds Of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) legislation cancels the amount outstanding in full

Inadequacy – Under pre-POCA legislation the defendant can make an application to the High Court, for a fee of £350, to apply for a Certificate of Inadequacy (COI) to reduce the order amount where assets have not achieved the value assessed at the confiscation hearing.

POCA s24 Discharge – The Enforcement Authority can apply to the Crown Court to reduce amounts up to £1,000 where they are satisfied the value of the asset has not met the value assessed at the confiscation hearing. The most likely cause for this is fluctuations in foreign currency.

POCA s25 Discharge – The Enforcement Authority can apply to the Crown Court to discharge amounts up to £50, where there is little prospect of recovering the small amount outstanding or it is no longer cost effective to do so.

Reconsideration of Available Assets - Under POCA legislation the defendant can make an application to the Crown Court, to apply for a Variation Order to reduce the order amount where assets have not achieved the value assessed at the confiscation hearing. Unlike a pre-POCA COI application, no fee is payable.

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.

Although, as the Enforcement Authority, HMCTS owns the debt, it is not always the lead enforcement agency. HMCTS tends to lead on the high volume, low value orders. Prosecution agencies, including the CPS and the Serious Fraud Office, lead on enforcement where they have put Restraint Orders on the defendant's property to protect the asset, or where the professional expertise of an Enforcement Receiver will be required to enforce the confiscation order.

All outstanding amounts are actively pursued using a range of enforcement tools open to us. A confiscation order is a life time order and only amounts up to £50 can be written off. Default sentences of up to 10 years in prison are activated for non payment. Serving the default sentence does not cancel the debt and we will continue to pursue the amount owed. Interest is added to the order balance outstanding at the rate of 8% per annum. The fact that interest accrues at such a high rate and amounts over £50 cannot be written off, contribute to the increasing level of debt. At the end of December 2013, the total amount outstanding was £1.47 billion, of which £372 million was interest alone. At the end of December 2013, including interest £24 million is owed by defendants who are deceased and a further £86 million is owed by defendants who have been deported. Even for those that are deported we still try to actively pursue the defendants assets held abroad, but we rely on the cooperation of overseas enforcement agencies, which is often not forthcoming. The Agencies responsible for enforcement are building better relationships with overseas authorities and engage specialist forensic teams to track down hidden assets.

The amount defendants repaid from their criminal activity across all agencies reached an all time high during 2012/13, with a total of £133.1 million recovered. That represented a 7% increase on the £124.1 million recovered during 2011/12. The total amount recovered has increased for the last four consecutive years and once again we are on course to have another record breaking year this financial year. For the 2013/14 financial year, at the end of December 2013, £102.8 million had been recovered, which is an increase of 2% on the £100.5 million that was collected up to December 2012. Since 2008/09, when £98.8 Million was recovered, the amount collected from criminals has increased by 35%.

HMCTS is seeking a commercial partner to help increase collections, reduce enforcement costs and importantly, ensure more criminals pay. A new national system has been implemented to manage the collection of fixed penalty notices, with all of the Police Forces having transferred to the new platform by June 2013.The continuing improvement the Agencies are making combined with our future plans will ensure that more criminals pay and that taxpayers get better value for money.