Jane Earl has been appointed to head up the first national agency dedicated to depriving criminals of the profits of their crimes and cutting off the financial lifeblood of criminal organisations, Home Office Minister Bob Ainsworth announced today.
Announcing the allocation of £11.5 million of criminally confiscated cash to grass roots projects aimed at tackling crime, Mr Ainsworth said that the Assets Recovery Agency will provide the driving force towards recovering criminals' ill -gotten gains through criminal confiscation, civil recovery and taxation. Through the Agency's Centre of Excellence, the new Director will also promote more effective financial investigation by training and accrediting financial investigators working in law enforcement.
Twenty-seven projects nationwide, including programmes to reduce drug related deaths, tackle the problems of prolific offenders and aid community regeneration, will receive a share of approximately £11.5 million from the Recovered Assets Fund (RAF). This means that RAF grants worth over £14 million have been made across the country during the last 12 months.
Home Office Minister, Bob Ainsworth, said:
"I am delighted that the Home Secretary has appointed Jane Earl as the Director of the new Assets Recovery Agency. I am confident that she will meet the formidable challenge that lies ahead in the field of asset recovery and I look forward to working with her.
"Most criminals are motivated by profit and it is this pursuit of profit at all costs which wreaks such havoc on our communities. It is often the under-privileged and the vulnerable who suffer most from crime, which is why the Recovered Assets Fund is so important in enabling confiscated assets to be invested back into our communities to tackle crime and promote regeneration.
"Above all, the Recovered Assets Fund shows how asset recovery can make a real difference in our communities and send out the clear message that crime does not pay."
The projects selected for funding cover England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The RAF was set up as part of the wider Asset Recovery Strategy which includes a target of collecting £60 million per year of criminal assets by 2004/5. For this round of funding 50% of receipts from confiscated assets have been allocated to the RAF.
Notes to Editors
ARA Appointment
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The Director of the Assets Recovery Agency will take up her post in February 2003 in time for the Agency to start operations.
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This is the second tranche of projects to benefit from RAF funding this year following Round One allocations over the summer. Set up in October 2001, the RAF allocates the profits accumulated through criminality into a wide variety of crime reduction and community regeneration initiatives. The projects selected for funding in Round Two represent a range of initiatives consistent with published criteria and addressing established priorities.
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The functions of the Assets Recovery Agency are to:
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Support the Police, Customs and other agencies in conducting financial investigation, through providing specialist training and advice;
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Investigate cases leading to post-conviction confiscation orders and/or to apply for such orders;
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Enforce certain categories of confiscation order; use new powers to recover the proceeds of unlawful conduct through civil recovery proceedings, where securing a criminal conviction is not possible;
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Or - if neither criminal conviction nor civil recovery are possible or practicable - use taxation powers to recover the proceeds of criminal conduct;
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Seek, and execute requests for, international assistance in obtaining restraint and confiscation and the use of investigation powers.
Biographical notes
Jane Earl was appointed to the post of chief executive of Wokingham Unitary Council in November 1999.
She has 20 years experience in local government, working for local authorities such as Elmbridge Borough Council and the London Borough of Hounslow. She worked for Reading Borough Council for five years from 1982-87 and for a further six years from 1989-96 which culminated in her holding the post of assistant chief executive.
Jane was regional director of Business in the Community (1996-98). Prior to this she was seconded to the Government Office for the South East creating a practical strategy for the regeneration of Thanet.
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Round one bidding started in November 2001. £250,000 was committed last year to 2 bids on asset recovery related activity: i) £85,000 to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to fund an analysis of asset recovery training needs within the Criminal Justice System and ii) £165,000 to three police forces' financial investigation units to improve the handling of suspicious transaction reports.
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On 26 July 2002, the Home Office announced that a further 19 projects had received a share of £2.8 million from Round One of the RAF (PN 215/2002)
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For further information on the Proceeds of Crime Act refer to the website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/proceeds/index.htm
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A copy of the Act is available at http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/20020029.htm and accompanying explanatory notes at http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/en/2002en29.htm.
Details of the successful bidders are as follows:
Department of Health
£200,000 over one year to continue to fund work on an action plan to reduce drug misuse related deaths (DRDs). The bid comprises: guidance to enable local confidential inquiries into DRDs in all DAT areas in England and Wales, including national collation and publication of findings, funding for action research into causes and prevention of DRDs and compendium of evidence-based good practice utilising the findings of the above.
National Criminal Intelligence Service - Review of Suspicious Transaction Reports
£450,000 over six months. A review of arrangements for handling Suspicious Transaction Reports.
National Crime Squad
£407,750 over one year for a major intelligence operation targetting the trade in Class A drugs with the aim of dismantling criminal organisations and identifying the proceeds of crime for confiscation.
SOUTH EAST
Surrey Drug Action Team - Inquiries into Drug Deaths
£10,000 over one year to establish inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the death and try to establish whether practice by agencies in contact with the client in the weeks preceding death could be changed or enhanced in order to reduce the risk of future similar deaths.
No Limits - Young People's Substance Misuse Project in Southampton
£219,472 over three years to employ and train staff to offer information, advice and counselling to young people on substance misuse issues.
Reading Drugs Action Team - Oxford Road Drugs and Streetcrime Initiative
£155,000 over three years to employ a full-time worker to deal with homeless drug users, develop support packages, provide training, support, advice and co-ordination of programmes.
Blewbury Recreation Ground Committee - Blewbury Skatepark, Oxfordshire
£39,000 one-off payment to construct a new skate park and play area providing a safe place for such activities and aiding rural regeneration and crime reduction.
Winchester Alliance for Mental Health - Community Recycling Scheme
£106,723 over three years for a community project building at HM Prison Winchester with environmentally friendly construction and a waste recycling scheme to be used by individuals with enduring mental health issues. Also, to aid resettlement in the community and reduce offending.
Brighton and Hove Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership - Anti Social Behaviour Initiative £199,230 over one year to enable the development of coherent anti-social behaviour strategy and implement good practice via recruitment of new staff.
WEST MIDLANDS
ACPO/ West Midlands Police Operation 'Middle Market'
£610,148 over one year for the disruption of networks in the middle market distribution of Class A drugs with funding required to keep an established programme working.
West Midlands Regional Asset Recovery Team
£558,000 over three years to bring together existing investigators into a single unit with associated support staff and equipment.
Staffordshire Police and Probation Service - Cannock and Staffordshire Persistent Offender Project
£660,565 over three years to target persistent offenders with drug dependencies, providing an intensive programme of supervision including drug testing.
EAST MIDLANDS
Corby Borough Council: Project Diversion
£37,000 over two years. Working with the disengaged or at risk young people to improve self esteem, communication, social skills, teamwork and life aspirations.
EAST
Hertfordshire Constabulary - Eastern Region Tasking Co-ordination Project
£495,000 over three years to fund a Regional Principal and Deputy Analyst and maintain a regional fund for operations, further to improve regional intelligence gathering and sharing.
Cambridgeshire Police Authority - Targeted Drugs Initiative
£64,800 over one year to enable the disruption of local drugs market via intelligence led policing, an accelerated final arrest programme and an enhanced referral programme for substance abusers especially those with crack cocaine problems.
Rookery Youth Community - Rookery Youth POD Project, Watford
£35,069 over 3 years to purchase a 'POD' cabin to facilitate youth and community work and the support of youngsters through training and advice.
NORTH EAST
The Integrated Treatment / Outreach Programme, Darlington
£189,612 over three years to provide a range of services targeted at substance misuse to identified prolific offenders.
NORTH WEST
Merseyside Middle Market Drugs Investigation
£4,236,379 over three years to create a unit to focus operations against drug supply criminality.
SOUTH WEST
Gwellheans Recovery
£66,671 over three years to expand an existing service focussing on relapse prevention and positive reintegration back into the community. Propose to employ a full-time caseworker, address diversity issues and implement a care plan and database system to be used as monitoring tools.
Interventions towards the Significant Other (Clouds Agency), Wiltshire
£253,699 over three years to establish support group facilitators and necessary management infrastructure for simple interventions with carers of substance misusers.
Avon and Somerset Constabulary - Prolific Offenders Unit
£1,065,000 over three years to support the establishment of a prolific offenders unit with a multi-agency team working on assessment, training and needs and support programmes.
Home Office Crime Reduction Team - Releasing the Potential Workforce, Bristol £390,000 over three years to fund two full-time positions to be established in HM Prison Bristol, one specialising in Marketing and Recruitment, the other in Drug Support. To produce employment plans for prisoners prior to release and to target more employers to aid entry into the Bristol jobs market.
WALES
Bridgend Rapid Access Points
£462,500 over three years to reduce harm and criminal activity by speeding up the referral process for high-risk users by offering a rapid appointment for assessment and access to treatment, and where necessary a substitute prescribing service.
Musical Youth (Torfaen County Borough Council)
£82,627 over three years to develop a successful pilot through the recruitment of a Musical Youth Co-ordinator to work with volunteers to engage young people through the medium of music.
Colwyn Women's Aid - Colwyn Women's Aid Outreach Services
£216,193 over three years to employ Outreach / Refuge workers providing information, support, training and working with children concerning domestic violence.
SCOTLAND
Scottish Crown Office - Analysis and assessment of the training needs within the Criminal Justice system in Scotland £97,965 over one year to the Crown Office to devise and deliver a training programme to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and law enforcement agencies in Scotland on the new confiscation regime set out in the Proceeds of Crime Act. It mirrors a similar grant to the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales. This will ensure that the police and others are fully up to speed when the provisions of the Act are introduced over the coming months.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Forensic Science Northern Ireland / Police Service of Northern Ireland - Chemical Profiling Service £150,050 over three years to establish a system of analysing Ecstasy tablet seizures, building intelligence and enabling drug batch movements to be monitored.
Home Office Press Release
(C) Crown Copyright
