Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many asset freezing orders the CPS applied for in each of the last eight years; and how many such applications were successful.

The CPS holds records of the number of asset freezing orders which it has obtained, but not the number of orders which it applied for during the last 8 years. On 30 June 2014, as part of work to tackle organised crime, the Director of Public Prosecutions launched a new service within the CPS which will work exclusively on recovering assets from criminals convicted in England and Wales. CPS Proceeds of Crime (CPSPOC) is responsible for all CPS restraint activity. CPSPOC will compile information as to how many asset freezing orders are applied for and how many are granted. This information will be available in future financial years.

The table below sets out the total number of asset freezing orders obtained by the CPS in each of the last eight financial years. There has been a drop in the number of asset freezing orders obtained by the CPS since 2010-11. This is partly due to a fall in the type of investigations that lead to restraint orders being required and partly due to the decision in Windsor v CPS [2011] EWCA Crim 143, which tightened the evidential requirements needed with ex parte applications for restraint orders at the investigation stage.