Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2014 to Question 215386, how many of the suspicious activity reports were followed up in each year; and how many (a) investigations, (b) enforcement actions, (c) referrals to other agencies and (d) prosecutions there were as a result in each year.

Suspicious activity reports (SARs) are submitted under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 or the Terrorism Act 2000 as a result of suspicion formed by the reporting sector. The SARs are then disseminated by the Financial Intelligence
Unit to end users who have direct access via a secure computer portal appropriate for the confidentiality of the data. This direct access then allows end users to use SARs for a variety of investigative and intelligence purposes.
No central record is held relating to the ultimate use of SARs data by these end users and therefore no data is available relating to how many investigations or enforcement actions may have resulted from SARs. A report providing an assessment of the operation of the SARs regime is published annually on the NCA website, the link is below: http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/suspicious-activity-reports-sars/94-sars-annual-report-2013