§ The Earl of Kimberleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why police and other agencies do not benefit, in addition to their normal budgets, from the confiscated assets of those convicied under the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986.
Earl FerrersResources must be allocated on the basis of an assessment of overall priorities and needs to which all public services must be subject: to allocate specific sources of revenue to particular services would be neither flexible nor fair. There would be practical difficulties in dividing the money between police forces and other agencies who would expect to benefit. Also, income from confiscation would not be constant and no well-planned initiative could afford to depend on it. However, in the light of new information from the Association of Chief Police Officers about funding difficulties, we are discussing the options in further detail with them.