Official Statistics

Asset recovery annual statistical bulletin: methodology and quality report

Published 9 September 2021

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

This report provides statistical information on the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin including an overview of the Bulletin’s scope, the methodology and processes that are used to produce the statistics published in the Bulletin. The report also provides users of the statistics with information on the quality of data and outputs used to produce the statistics in the Bulletin.

This report is regularly reviewed and updated annually to reflect additions, and changes to the reporting of the statistics.

Background context information on the Bulletin is provided separately in the Background Context Note.

1. Coverage

Overview, Time Period and Geographic Regions

The Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin provides data on the value and volume of proceeds of crime restrained, seized, detained, and recovered through Criminal Confiscations, Forfeitures and Civil Recovery. It also includes statistics on the value of compensation paid to victims and the use of funds by Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) agencies received through the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS).

The Bulletin series provides data from financial year 2011 to 2012 to present and cover asset recovery performance in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and those which have no recorded jurisdiction. This release does not include data covering Scotland.

The Bulletin is published on a yearly basis, information on the Publication Calendar can be found in Section 8.

Data splits provided in the publication

The statistics provide the following breakdowns on the value of proceeds of crime recovered by:

• Legislative powers under POCA
• Location of jurisdiction
• Financial year

Annex A includes data on Modern Slavery providing statistics on the value and volume of proceeds of crime restrained and recovered. These statistics provide the following breakdowns by:

• Legislative powers under POCA
• Financial year

From September 2021, the statistics expanded the breakdown on legislative powers under POCA to include seizure and restraint powers and included data on the volumes on the proceeds of crime recovered. The latest release also includes Experimental Statistics on International Asset Recovery cases, with the following breakdowns by:

• Value of proceeds of crime recovered: total value and value shared and or retained by the UK government
• Financial year

Further information on Experimental Statistics can be found in Section 7.

Other Asset Recovery Statistics

Statistics on the collection of Civil Recovery and Taxation are published by HM Revenue and Customs and the NCA in their respective Annual Report and Accounts.

2. Uses of the reported statistics

The statistics are used by law enforcement and prosecution agencies to inform operational decisions and the Home Office alongside other government departments to inform asset recovery policy decisions with the aim of contributing to an increase in the value of proceeds of crime recovered.

It should be noted that these statistics are also used to respond to Parliamentary Questions and requests submitted under the Freedom of Information Act.

We are interested in developing these statistics to meet user needs and welcome feedback from users. Further information on providing feedback can be found in Section 12.

3. Data sources

The data used to create these statistics are obtained from several administrative and operational databases, which are covered below. It should be noted the accuracy of the statistics are dependent on the recording and management of information stored on these databases.

Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD) Data

Data on values and volumes of proceeds of crime included in the statistical release is taken from JARD which is an operational database that is managed by the National Crime Agency (NCA). It is a central database which stores information on the seizure, detention, and recovery of the proceeds of crime across all Law Enforcement agencies (LEAs). JARD is funded through the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS) which has a top-slice that is deducted from the total amount recovered from proceeds of crime under the POCA legislation to fund national projects focused on Asset Recovery.

Data is entered by accredited Financial Investigators (FIs) within LEAs which includes the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and local authorities. The operational nature of the data means that it is entered each day by these agencies. This in turn means that JARD data entries adjust to reflect changes in the progress of cases, the resolution of cases and the addition of new cases.

JARD data includes all cases reported in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, however it should be noted that this release does not include data covering Scotland. The cases recorded under JARD represent those which have been processed under all legislation which is available for recovering the proceeds of crime including POCA.

Civil Recovery Data

The data presented on Civil Recovery Order receipts is provided by the NCA. It includes cases on proceeds of crime seized, detained, and recovered through Civil Recovery Orders. The database includes cases undertaken by several agencies including the NCA.

Data is entered by FIs within NCA and is updated regularly to reflect changes in the progress of cases, the resolution of cases and addition of new cases.

There is no data currently available for Civil Recovery on JARD.

International Asset Recovery Data

The data presented on International Asset Recovery is taken from administrative databases which are managed by the Home Office. It provides information on the cases executed by law enforcement in England and Wales, or Northern Ireland on behalf of another country, or vice versa. Data is also recorded on cases where funds recovered in the UK are returned to another country.

It is data which is entered regularly by the Home Office and will reflect the progress of cases as and when there are any changes. The data entered on the database can be quality assured against other data sources managed by LEAs including JARD.

Data has not been provided prior to the financial year 2019 to 2020 due to quality issues which mean it is difficult to identify when assets were recovered for cases.

Survey Data on the Use of ARIS Funds

The data presented on the Use of ARIS Funds is taken from a survey which is managed by the Home Office. It is a survey which is run on an annual basis and is distributed to all of the POCA agencies which have involvement with the ARIS Scheme, and is designed to develop an understanding of how they spend funds which are allocated to them.

Data collected from the survey is cleansed by the statistical team to ensure missing entries are removed.

4. Data limitations

JARD Data

The statistics have been produced using the live operational data recorded in JARD on a point in time basis to identify annual changes in the proceeds of crime across the POCA legislative powers under the Criminal Confiscation system and the Civil system.

As the data is directly entered by law enforcement officers onto the live database, any errors in the imputation of data may therefore impact the accuracy of statistics produced for the value and volumes of proceeds of crime for each respective POCA power. Where known errors have been identified, corrective measures have been applied.

The statistics may not report timely figures on case orders which are still active from previous historical years because it can take several years for a case to proceed from the asset denial stage to the asset recovery stage. For example, when a case is at the asset recovery stage, a criminal can make payments towards the Order over several years after the initial seizure was made. Thus, the statistics presented might not report the asset denial and asset recovery stages for the same associated case within a given time period.

In summary, it is important that users take into consideration the following limitations:

• coverage: Reported statistics on the proceeds of crime in the bulletin are based on England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and those which have no recorded jurisdiction which means the bulletin on Asset Recovery does not capture any Scotland cases incase users are interested in assessing the scale of proceeds of crime in Scotland
• accuracy: There are a number of users who can update entries of cases on JARD, so current case orders and those which are still ongoing from previous historical years may be subject to revisions to correct for data errors, to update the scale of alleged proceeds of crime and the scale of recovered proceeds of crime following successful or unsuccessful criminal or civil procedural outcomes

International Asset Recovery Data

Information on International Asset Recovery cases are gathered manually by the Home Office and collated on an internal database. All efforts have been made to collect data on all relevant cases.

Use of ARIS Funds Survey Data

The survey is distributed only to those agencies which are involved in the ARIS Scheme and therefore results will not include those agencies which do not receive funds from the ARIS Scheme.

Therefore, statistics presented will only represent those POCA agencies which have submitted returns for the survey and not the entire group of POCA agencies. It means any monies presented does not reflect the total allocation which is distributed as part of the ARIS scheme.

Variations in Data Recorded

It should be noted there will be variations in the data recorded for each financial year due to revisions made in retrospection of the live administrative JARD system. Figures included in the latest statistical release supersede previous officially reported figures. Therefore, any direct comparisons of changes in asset recovery performance should not be made between the latest and previous releases of the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin.

5. Methodology

The information below outlines the main processes involved in producing the statistics used in the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin including data extraction, statistics production, and quality assurance.

Data Extraction

Data used in the release are extracted annually in July. It should be noted that the data includes those cases which use the legislative powers under POCA for restrain, seizure, detention, and recovery of proceeds of crime. These reported statistics are presented on a financial year basis.

In a financial year, the recorded data covers the time period between the 1st April until the 31st March. For example, the financial year ending 2015, reports the period starting from the 1st April 2014 until 31st March 2015.

Civil Recovery Statistics

Statistics on the proceeds of crime recovered from Civil Recovery Order receipts were extracted from an operational NCA database. These statistics are reported on a financial year basis covering the years 2016 to 2017 until 2020 to 2021.

International Asset Recovery Statistics

Experimental Statistics on the assets realised from cooperating with other countries were extracted from an administrative Home Office database. These statistics are reported on a financial year basis covering the financial years 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021.

Experimental Statistics on the funds returned to other countries were extracted from an administrative Home Office database. These statistics are reported on a financial year basis covering the financial year 2020 to 2021.

Data has not been provided prior to the financial year 2019 to 2020 due to quality issues which made it difficult to identify where assets were recovered.

Survey Data on the Use of ARIS Funds

The statistics presented in the “Use of ARIS Funds” section are based on an annual survey which is managed by the Home Office and is distributed to all of the POCA agencies which have involvement with the ARIS Scheme, and is designed to develop an understanding of how they spend funds which are allocated to them.

The figures for the financial years 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020 on the Use of ARIS funds were obtained from a survey sent to POCA agencies in June 2020.

Survey data collected in previous financial years was combined with the current survey data circulated to POCA agencies. It should be noted the number of survey responses will vary between the financial years so caution should be applied when making year-on-year comparisons.

Statistics Production

This section details the method used to produce the statistics for each POCA power under the Criminal Confiscation and Civil system for asset recovery.

Value and Volume of Proceeds of Crime Statistics

The statistics presented on the value and volume of proceeds of crime restrained, seized, detained, frozen and recovered through Criminal Confiscation or Civil powers are produced using aggregations of live operational data recorded in JARD except for Civil Recovery, Taxation and International Asset Recovery.

It is used to produce the corresponding reported statistics covering the period from the financial year 2015 to 2016 until financial year 2020 to 2021.

This method uses live JARD data to monitor changes in asset recovery by the value and volumes of each respective legislative power mentioned above, therefore the statistics presented may be revised because the criminal and civil cases are subject to retrospective revision.

The main methodology is summarised below.

Value of Proceeds of Crime Statistics

For Criminal Confiscation powers we have the following:

• the value of proceeds of crime restrained from Restraint Orders is based on the estimated order value, which represents the predicted amount of monies to be restrained from the defendant once a Restraint Order is imposed and is calculated using the amount of monies which the defendant is deemed to have benefited from criminal activity
• the value of proceeds of crime denied from a Confiscation Order Imposition is based on the order amount, which represents the amount of monies which have been denied from the defendant once a Confiscation Order has been imposed
• the main measure for the value of proceeds of crime confiscated is based on the distributed amount associated with a Confiscation Order, which represents the value of proceeds of crime in receipts which have been recovered from the defendant following a Confiscation Order being imposed

For Civil powers we have the following:

• the value of proceeds of crime seized from Account Freezing Orders (AFOs), Cash Seizures and Listed Asset Orders is based on the finalised order amount, which represents the value of proceeds of crime that will be seized from the defendant given the civil proceedings have been completed
• from September 2021, the main measure for the value of proceeds of crime recovered from Forfeiture Orders is based on the finalised order amount for a Forfeiture Order once it has been imposed and represents the value of proceeds of crime in receipts which will be recovered from the defendant given the civil proceedings have been completed
• the main measure for the value of proceeds of crime recovered from Civil Recovery Orders is based on the finalised order amount for a Civil Recovery Order once it has been imposed and represents the value of proceeds of crime in receipts which will be recovered from the defendant given the civil proceedings have been completed

Volume of Proceeds of Crime Statistics

For Criminal Confiscation powers we have the following:

The main measure for the volume of proceeds of crime restrained and confiscated is based on the number of cases processed for each respective power. The volume of cases represents the number of processed cases for each respective power where proceeds of crime will be restrained, withheld, or recovered from the defendant following a Confiscation Order being imposed.

For Civil powers we have the following:

The main measure for the volume of proceeds of crime seized, detained, and recovered from a type of Forfeiture Order is based on the number of cases where a type of Forfeiture Order has been imposed. The volume of cases represents the number of processed cases where proceeds of crime will be seized, detained, and recovered from the defendant given the civil proceedings have been completed.

Main Methodology Changes

• in previous reports from September 2017 to September 2020, the main measure for the value of proceeds of crime recovered from Forfeiture Orders in receipts was based on the current order amount associated with a Forfeiture Order, this means it represented the value of proceeds of crime deemed to be recoverable from the defendant whilst the civil proceedings are being completed and the current order amount is a figure which could change following the completion of civil proceedings
• reports from September 2017 did not report statistics on the volume of proceeds of crime, but from September 2021, volume of proceeds of crime statistics will be reported for the POCA powers

Quality Assurance

There are a number of quality assurance procedures which are completed for each annual statistical release and involves checking:

• consistency in data recorded across different systems and management information (MI) data
• reliability and completeness of specific variables
• trends and variations in specific variables, timeseries and the geographical breakdowns
• checks for retrospection against previous annual datasets
• identification of outliers within the data
• updates from policy and operational stakeholders on changes to legislation and reporting procedures that might affect the data

Further to these checks, several rounds of quality assurance are undertaken by the statistics team and external analysts who are required to complete a Quality Assurance (QA) checklist, to ensure the statistics reported are of high quality.

6. Presentation of data and revisions

Rounding

Figures presented in the statistical release on the value of proceeds of crime and the volumes of proceeds of crime restrained, detained, seized, and recovered from cases are rounded. The rounding applied to these figures is dependent on the magnitude of the figure shown and is presented in the table below.

In instances where rounded data is presented, users should be aware that the individual figures might not sum to the total figures shown due to rounding. Any associated percentages will be capped at 100% of the total.

Percentages have been rounded to the nearest percent based on the round-half-away-from-zero method. It should be noted that percentages are calculated using figures that were not rounded.

Statistical Release Rounding Policy Range	Rounded to Nearest
0 – 1,000	10
1,001 – 10,000	100
10,001 -100,000	1,000
100,001 – 1,000,000	10,000
1,000,001 – 10,000,000	100,000
10,000,001 – 100,000,000	1,000,000

Revisions

The Departmental approach to revisions and corrections for all of its statistical releases can be found in the Home Office statement of Compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The statistics presented may be revised because the criminal and civil cases are subject to retrospective revision. This could be due to proceeds of crime being re-frozen to reflect changes in the value and/or volumes of proceeds of crime that can be recovered from the offender. Revisions can also occur when the proceeds of crime restrained, seized, or recovered have been recorded in retrospection by a FI following an outcome. This means earlier statistics would not include those figures and would not capture the total proceeds of crime restrained, detained, seized, and recovered in that time period.

It should be noted the latest time periods are most likely to have revisions applied to them than those time periods which are further back in time.

7. Status of the statistics

Official Statistics

National, Official and Experimental Statistics are produced in a way which is compliant with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. In the development of the Annual Statistical Bulletin on Asset Recovery, the Home Office has acted in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and its supporting Principles.

Experimental Statistics – International Asset Recovery

The statistics on International Asset Recovery are badged as Experimental because they are not fully developed. It is anticipated as the systems for recording International Asset Recovery are introduced and become stable, these statistics will provide better coverage and a fixed methodology.

What are Experimental Statistics?

Experimental Statistics are statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed, which may be due to the following reasons:

• they are being produced part way through a well-defined development programme, whether these statistics are new or changed versions of existing statistics
• the statistics are new but still subject to testing in terms of their volatility and ability to meet customer needs
• the statistics do not yet meet the rigorous quality standards of National Statistics
• a rich variety of new measures is available from a new set of statistics, with components that have considerable immediate value to users; these users are aware of the statistics’ theoretical quality and can use them before we have completed all operational testing – the testing is designed to fully validate the measures to the standard expected of National Statistics

Further information on Experimental Statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority’s website.

8. Future publications

Publications will be released on the first Thursday of September every year.

Future releases of this Statistical Bulletin are pre-announced on the Statistics release calendar. These releases are produced and released in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

It is also published on the Publication Hub for UK National Statistics.

9. Pre-release access

This Statistical Bulletin is compliant with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics in line with other Home Office publications. Details on pre-release access for Home Office statistical publications can be found in the Statement of compliance with the code of practice for statistics – Release practices.

The Pre-release access list for this statistical release can be found on the Asset Recovery statistics page.

10. Accessibility and previous releases of this Bulletin

Previous releases of this Bulletin covering the financial years from 2011 to 2012 until 2019 to 2020 can be found on the Asset Recovery statistics page. It should be noted that previous releases might not be in accessible formats because they were released before 23 September 2020.

Any subsequent releases of this Bulletin after September 2020 will be published in an accessible format. This is in line with The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 legislation.

Users which are interested in receiving a specifical Statistical Bulletin in a different format can request this. If you have any enquiries please email [email protected].

The statistics provided in this Bulletin have been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

11. Development of these statistics

The Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin was developed to improve the level of transparency on Asset Recovery legislation by the Home Office. It was produced in response to a report published by the Public Account Committee (PAC) in July 2016 on Confiscation Orders progress review which outlined recommendations focused on developing information published on government performance for confiscation of property associated with criminal activity.

12. Further information, contacts, and feedback

Feedback

The Home Office welcomes feedback from users on its statistical releases and we are always looking to improve the accessibility of our documents.

If you have any feedback or enquiries about this statistical release, please contact the Asset Recovery Performance team by email [email protected].