Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government under which circumstances, if any, they intervene to block requests for assets to be remitted to foreign government organisations either from the UK or British overseas territories.

Under proceeds of crime legislation, asset sharing and repatriation is ultimately the Government’s decision following the recovery of assets/money under a court order it is a matter of how to then dispose of those recovered moneys. In confiscation cases, the UN Convention Against Corruption requires a full return to victim States and the EU Framework Decision on confiscation orders requires a 50% share in cases in excess of 10,000 Euros.

There are other bilateral and multilateral international agreements that encourage the sharing of recovered assets. The UK does not require an international agreement to share or repatriate assets and does so on request on an ad hoc basis. The presumption is that 50% is shared with the requesting country. There are few cases so far, but none have been refused.

The Government does not intervene with similar cases involving the Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies.