HC Deb 03 May 1990 vol 171 c666W
68. Mr. Ian Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the value of drug traffickers' assets ordered to be confiscated by the courts in 1988; and what estimate he has as to the likely figure for 1989.

Mr. John Patten

The latest figures, which are in respect of confiscation orders made in 1987 and 1988, are given in table 7.25 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 1988", a copy of which is in the Library. These show that £8.1 million was ordered to be confiscated in 1988. Data for 1989 will not be available until autumn 1990. The current estimate by the national drugs intelligence unit of the cumulative total of confiscation orders made since the Drug Trafficking Offences Act came into force in January 1987, is in excess of £16 million.