I thank the noble Lord for his questions on these orders. He asked four main questions. If I leave anything out, I will be very happy to write to him subsequently.
His first point was on the level of recovery, and he said that the NAO report states that only 26p in every £100 of profits that criminals made was confiscated in 2012-13. We have never recognised that 26p figure. However, the Government have made it plain in the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy that more should be done to attack criminal finances. That is why we are seeking to amend the Proceeds of Crime Act to significantly strengthen sentences for those who refuse to pay off their orders, to enable restraint orders to be made more quickly and easily and to tackle third-party claims. These are quite important aspects in dealing with that point.
The Government’s approach is not restricted to legislation. The Criminal Finances Board, which is chaired by the Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime, is also working across government, law enforcement agencies and prosecution agencies to improve performance and make it harder for criminals to move, hide and use the proceeds of crime. The noble Lord asked about international asset recovery, which is a very important aspect of recovering proceeds of crime. The UK does not require a formal international agreement to be able to co-operate with another country in respect of freezing, confiscating and sharing or repatriating the
proceeds of crime because it has 37 bilateral mutual legal assistance agreements. However, as part of the cross-Whitehall asset recovery international strategy, the CPS has posted specialist asset recovery advisers to Spain and the UAE. Two further asset recovery advisers have taken up posts covering Europe and the Caribbean, and another asset recovery adviser will soon be in place in South Africa. We are also at the point of ratifying the most recent Council of Europe convention relating to money-laundering, confiscation and financial investigations.
The noble Lord asked about comments by the NCA director, Keith Bristow, and his expectation of only £124 million being recovered out of the £1.46 billion outstanding from confiscation orders. The Government are implementing a multiagency criminal finances improvement plan to recover assets more effectively, and to tackle the £1.5 billion stock of outstanding confiscation orders, including by concentrating enforcement action on the priority confiscation order cases, and we have recovered £40 million so far. We are working more closely with the financial sector and deploying specialist CPS asset recovery advisers to improve the recovery of criminal assets from overseas, while provisions in the Serious Crime Bill will substantially increase the penalties for those who refuse to pay their confiscation orders.
The Serious Crime Bill will make it easier for prosecutors to freeze assets earlier in an investigation and to take money held in bank accounts to satisfy confiscation orders. It will also require judges to consider imposing travel bans. Asset freezing and recovery is a very effective tool for disrupting organised crime groups. Performance is not just about the amounts recovered; it is about the amounts denied to criminals so that money cannot be used to further fund criminality.
The noble Lord’s fourth question was on training and monitoring. The proceeds of crime centre in the NCA trains and closely monitors all financial investigations. They are among the most closely regulated investigations. The staff have to undertake ongoing training, passing continuous professional development, and they are reviewed fully every two years. I hope that that answers the noble Lord’s questions. If there are any outstanding questions then I will write to him, but in the mean time, I beg to move.