| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Confiscation and Money Laundering
Legislation
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the performance of courts enforcing confiscation and money laundering laws. [61553]
Mr. Boateng:
The third report of the Home Office Working Group on Confiscation, published on 10 November, identifies significant weaknesses in the enforcement of confiscation orders, including a number relating to the roles of the courts. The Working Group makes recommendations for improving performance in this
2 Dec 1998 : Column: 198
area, and for remedying perceived gaps in the money laundering legislation. The Government have announced a consultation period until the end of February, and will take account of the responses received before making decisions on the report's proposals.
Mr. Jenkins:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the involvement of the police in enforcing current confiscation and money laundering laws; and if he will estimate the cost to each police force in 1997-98 of this activity. [61555]
Mr. Boateng:
The police have a specific role under the confiscation legislation in conducting asset tracing investigations, and under the money laundering legislation in receiving reports of suspicious transactions from financial institutions and other sources. Suspicious transaction reports are normally made to the Economic Crime Unit at the National Criminal Intelligence Service, while every police force in England and Wales has a Financial Investigation Unit, responsible for identifying assets for confiscation and investigating suspected money laundering. Information on the cost of this activity to individual forces is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, the costs borne by the police and other relevant authorities in implementing confiscation powers will be one of the factors to be included in the study which the Government plan to initiate of the possibility of establishing a confiscation agency.
Mr. Jenkins:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the value of assets seized from criminals by courts in each year since 1992. [61554]
Mr. Boateng:
Information about criminal confiscation orders is set out in the tables.
2 Dec 1998 : Column: 197
| £ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Amount ordered to be confiscated | Downward variation on appeal | Default sentences (DTOA 1986) (15) | Amount available for confiscation | Amount remitted to consolidated fund |
| 1992 | 9,129,863 | (16)500,000 | 1,271,000 | (17)7,358,863 | 5,180,900 |
| 1993 | 9,678,118 | 594,000 | 579,000 | 8,505,118 | 5,380,000 |
| 1994 | (18)25,373,426 | 489,000 | 2,537,000 | (18)22,347,426 | 5,135,000 |
| 1995 | 18,337,490 | 1,201,000 | 848,000 | 16,288,490 | 5,343,000 |
| 1996 | 10,471,336 | 1,643,000 | 1,342,000 | 7,486,336 | 7,415,000 |
| Total | 72,990,233 | 4,427,000 | 6,577,000 | 61,986,233 | 28,453,900 |
(15) Default sentences served under the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986 served to expunge the debt owned by the defendant
(16) Estimate--no figures available for 1992
(17) Estimate based on
(18)/(19) Includes one confiscation order made by Chelmsford Crown Court for £15,314,000
2 Dec 1998 : Column: 197
(20) Default sentences served under the unamended CJA 1988 served to expunge the debt owed by the defendant
(21) No figures available
2 Dec 1998 : Column: 197
2 Dec 1998 : Column: 199
Mr. Jenkins:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what responses he has received to the third report of the Home Office Working Group on Confiscation. [61552]
Mr. Boateng:
None, but we would not expect to receive responses so soon after the report's publication. The consultation period will continue until the end of February. There have been a small number of letters from the public prompted by press coverage of the report.
Mr. Green:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what actions he proposes to take on the allocation of visas to child refugees from Albania. [61628]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
Applications for entry clearance have been received from Ms Sally Becker of Operation Angel for a total of 91 individuals, a third of which are in respect of children needing medical treatment. They have been referred to the Home Office from the British Embassy in Tirana.
The applications fell to be considered under the Immigration Rules relating to persons seeking to enter the United Kingdom as visitors for private medical treatment or simply as visitors. Under these Rules, we have to be satisfied, among other requirements, that there is satisfactory evidence about the medical condition and its treatment, that the person will be able to maintain and accommodate himself or herself and any dependants without recourse to public funds and that the person intends to leave the United Kingdom at the end of the period of the treatment or visit. In the absence of satisfactory evidence from Operation Angel or any other source, we were certainly not satisfied that these requirements were met in the applications.
We considered whether there were grounds for treating the application son a discretionary basis outside the Immigration Rules, but concluded that it would not be appropriate to do so. In reaching this decision, we took account of the fact that Ms Becker had not taken Government advice and guidance on how to bring such an evacuation within the recognised official procedures: she had not demonstrated the option of local treatment through the international agencies and had not made a proper case on medical grounds. We were also aware that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development has in place a humanitarian strategy for former Yugoslavia (including Kosovo) and Albania. Furthermore, in the absence of adequate guarantees of funding from Operation Angel, we had to take account of the likely cost to the taxpayer in the almost certain event of recourse to public funds which, for a group of this size, would be of the order of £400,000 a year. We accordingly decided to refuse the applications. Ms Becker was notified of this decision by the British Embassy in Tirana on Friday 13 November.
2 Dec 1998 : Column: 200
7. Rev. Martin Smyth:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will grant core funding to the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association in Northern Ireland in 1999-2000. [61204]
Mr. McFall:
I have received an application for core funding from the ME Association. No decisions have yet been taken in relation to voluntary sector funding for the next financial year. However, I can assure the hon. Gentleman that I will look sympathetically at this request.
9. Mrs. Laing:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress has been made on the decommissioning of illegally held arms and explosives. [61206]
28. Mr. Fraser:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when she expects the decommissioning of illegally held arms and explosives to begin. [61225]
30. Mr. Swayne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress is being made in securing the decommissioning of weapons. [61227]
Marjorie Mowlam:
I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave to the hon. Members for Witney (Mr. Woodward), for Mid-Worcestershire (Mr. Luff) and for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) on 2 December 1998, Official Report, column 865.
26. Mr. Viggers:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will make it her policy that prisoner releases and the decommissioning of illegally held arms and explosives should proceed in parallel. [61223]
Marjorie Mowlam:
The Government's policy is to implement the Belfast Agreement in full. The accelerated release of prisoners and the decommissioning of illegally held arms are both integral parts of the Agreement and it is essential that they, like every part, are implemented in full. There is no direct linkage in the Agreement and the Government cannot rewrite the Agreement.
29. Mr. Donaldson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans she has to review the conduct of specified organisations in co-operating with the International Commission on Decommissioning under section 3(9)(d) of the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998. [61226]
Marjorie Mowlam:
The organisations currently specified under the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 are INLA, Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. None of them are co-operating with the International Commission on Decommissioning.
The conduct of organisations, specified and not specified, is under continual review to ensure that those organisations which have not established or are not maintaining a complete and unequivocal ceasefire remain specified. All relevant factors, including the four factors set out in section 3(9) of the Act, are taken into account.
2 Dec 1998 : Column: 201
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |