§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the enforcement of the Government's policy on seizure and pursuit of criminal assets. [106589]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThis Government are determined to ensure that criminals do not keep their ill-gotten gains. The third report of the Home Office Working Group on600W Confiscation—published in November 1989—proposed a range of measures to tighten up the enforcement of criminal confiscation orders. Since the Working Group reported, the Government have been considering more widely whether some confiscation and forfeiture functions, including the enforcement of confiscation orders, might be operated more effectively by a national confiscation agency. In the autumn, the Prime Minister asked my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office (Mr. McCartney), to act as sponsor Minister for a project in the Cabinet Office's Performance and Innovation Unit to consider the role that following the money trail and seizing criminal assets can play in the fight against crime and how to maximise the effective use of these tools. The Performance and Innovation Unit is expected to report in the spring and a White Paper proposing comprehensive action against financial crime to issue shortly thereafter.