§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Caroline Flint)I am pleased to announce that the Assets Recovery Agency's annual report 2003–04 has been laid before Parliament today.
The Report covers the Agency's first full year of operation in the financial year 2003–04. The agency became operational on 24 February 2003. The report covers an assessment of the Agency's performance against its business plan 2003–04.
The agency is already making an impact. In its first year of operation it had 62 cases under investigation, with freezing orders, interim receiving orders and tax assessments made at a total value of £14.8 million. Where it has assisted law enforcement agencies in conducting confiscation investigations it has obtained restraint orders with a total value of over £4 million. The agency has also delivered an extensive training programme for financial investigators and successfully implemented a communications strategy to raise awareness of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
I am also pleased to announce the agency's business plan 2004–05, which is annexed to the annual report. The plan has been prepared by the director of the agency and has been approved by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary after consultation with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The plan focuses on the agency's aims, priorities and targets for the year ahead and sets out how the director intends to exercise her functions in Northern Ireland.
The establishment of the agency, with extensive powers to investigate and recover criminal assets, demonstrates the Government's commitment to taking the profit out of crime and to ensuring that crime does not pay.