§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of the total amount of money seized from drug barons and put back into anti-drug programmes in each year since 1996; and if he will make a statement. [66291]
§ Mr. Bob Ainsworth[holding answer 4 July 2002]: The receipts remitted to the Secretary of State from confiscation orders made under the Drug Trafficking Acts 1986 and 1994, for each year from 1996 were:
- £7,415.000 for 1996–97;
- £9,458,000 for 1997–98;
- £ 10,476,000 for 1998–99;
- £9,333.000 for 1999–2000; and
- £11,757,000 for 2000–01.
The figure for the year 2001–02 is not yet available.
Between April 1999 and March 2002 a total of £12 million was recycled through the Confiscated Assets Fund (CAF) and disbursed on anti-drug programmes.
1062WThe amounts disbursed in each year were £3 million in 1999–2000, £5 million in 2000–01 and £4 million in 2001–02.
No recycling of confiscated assets to anti-drugs programmes occurred during the period between 1996 and 1999, the year when the Confiscated Assets Fund was established.