Home Office officials are regularly missing opportunities to use confiscation orders to recoup profits made by criminals, sending out the signal that “crime pays” according to a report released today by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The number of confiscation orders imposed has fallen from “an unsatisfactory” 6,392 in 2012-13 to 5,839 in 2015-16. Although the amounts being confiscated from criminals has risen from £133 million to £175 million a year during this time, the debt has soared to £1.9 billion, the committee said.
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“Only £190 million of the £1.9 billion confiscation order debt can realistically be collected, sending the wrong message to taxpayers, victims and criminals – that crime pays,” the report said.
The Home Office has failed to address previously identified weaknesses in the system to take proceeds of crime off criminals, leaving just 10% of confiscation orders collectable, it said.
Among the recommendations are that the Home Office explain “"why so much of the accumulated debt is unlikely to be collected, highlight what is collected against recent confiscation orders, and set out how it is tackling uncollected debt to show that crime does not pay.”
It is also calling on the government department to set out clearly "how the objectives for confiscation orders should be prioritised and what constitutes success,” by the end of September this year.
The government has failed to address previous concerns over the confiscation orders “in spectacular fashion,” claimed Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC.
The “meagre returns” from the use of the orders “do nothing to alleviate public concerns about crime, nor to encourage the perception that justice is being done,” she said.
Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill, who was grilled during evidence sessions before the PAC earlier this year, is under mounting pressure to produce results when it comes to confiscation orders.
A previous PAC report, in 2014, found that the government was collecting the grand total of 26 pence in every £100 of criminal proceeds generated in that year, and made a series of recommendations. However, a report by the National Audit Office earlier this year echoed the concerns and stated that the changes needed had yet to happen.
In a statement to CSW, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK Government seized over £1.2 billion pounds from criminals between April 2010 and March 2016, and hundreds of millions more has been frozen and put beyond the reach of these offenders.”
There have been “significant reforms” such as creating new “asset confiscation enforcement teams” and introducing longer prison sentences for those who don't repay their orders.
“We will consider the recommendations made by the Public Accounts Committee and report back in due course,” the spokesperson added.