§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the oral answer of 14 June 2000,Official Report, column 924, if he will make a statement on the measures taken to date to implement recommendations contained in the Performance and Innovation Unit report on recovering the proceeds of crime in respect of confiscation of the profits accruing from drug-related crime. [133749]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeWhen the Prime Minister announced the publication of the PIU' s Report "Recovering the Proceeds of Crime" on 14 June, he said that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, in collaboration with my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, would take forward implementation of the conclusions of the Report and introduce legislation as soon as possible.
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced to the House on 19 July 2000, Official Report, column 379, that £54 million had been allocated over the three-year Spending Review period to fund the new National Confiscation Agency.
Legislation to establish the agency and implement other measures proposed in the Report is being prepared and will be brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.
In order to inform this work and ensure that no excessive burden will be placed on business we prepared a draft Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and sent it to a range of organisations, with a request for comments by 31 October. We will make the completed RIA available to the House in due course.