§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What they estimate to be the total cost of the Assets Recovery Agency in Northern Ireland for 2004–05 and 2005–06; whether they will allow full reinvestment of assets seized into enhanced operations; whether they will bring forward the date for such reinvestment from April 2006; and what value of assets has so far been siezed. [HL27]
§ The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos)The allocation of budget and resources to the Assets Recovery Agency is a matter for the Home Office. The Asset Recovery Agency's budget for 2004–05 is £15.5 million of which £3.64 million has been allocated to the Northern Ireland arm of the agency. I anticipate that similar resources will be allocated to the agency for the United Kingdom in 2005–061.
My right honourable friend the Home Secretary is currently considering proposals for an incentivisation scheme to operate from 2006–07 onwards whereby all agencies will receive 50 per cent of the receipts that they recover. There are no plans to increase the amount for re-investment or to bring forward the date of the new scheme.
The agency is actively investigating cases with a total asset value in excess of £4 million and as at 23 November 2004 had frozen assets totalling £3,711,567.91.
1 Based on current Home Office estimates.