Government of Jersey

Proceeds of crime confiscations (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 06 September 2019.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Please could you direct me to accounts and all reports and information showing where confiscated money from crime is used? How much has been confiscated since records begun, how much is currently held, how much has been shared according to FRACCK and what other monies are used for?

I understand it is used on the authorisation of the treasury minister to fund projects to help victims of crime or to prevent criminal activities or other like minded activities. Please can you show all reports about monies being used for these projects, what they were, what happened, how the money was spent, whether it successfully did what it was intended and who is responsible for following up these protects?

Also please show how much money has been released in asset sharing agreements, where it was released and all reports showing follow ups to ensure money was used properly, according to signed agreements, for example in Kenya.

Response

The Criminal Offences Confiscations Fund (“COCF”) was created under Article 24 of the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999. The Proceeds of Crime and Terrorism (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Jersey) Law 2014 came into effect on 4 August 2014. Subject to certain saving provisions, this repealed the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law 1988 and prescribed that any monies in the Drug Trafficking Confiscations Fund (“DTCF”) be transferred to the COCF. Where relevant, information in respect of DTCF transactions have been included for consistency.

Details of the amounts received, grants paid out and payments made in accordance with asset-sharing agreements up to 2017 were provided under a previous Freedom of Information request in November 2017, available at the following link:

Criminal Offences Confiscations Fund receipts and pay-outs (FOI)

Information relating to the period from November 2017 to July 2019 is provided below.

Amount confiscated

During the period November 2017 to July 2019 a total of £6,708,097 has been confiscated.

A list of the amounts by individual case is provided in the attached spreadsheet – “Receipts 2017-2019”.

Receipts 2017-2019

Amount paid out as Grants

Confiscated funds can only be used for the purpose of preventing crime or dealing with the consequences of crime, as set out in the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999, and must be approved by the Treasury & Resources Minister, after consultation with the Attorney General.

Ministerial Decisions relating to the allocation of funds from the COCF are publicly available on www.gov.je.

Where COCF funds are used to fund capital projects, these amounts appear in the Capital Programme as part of the Budget Statement, available at the following link:

Draft Budget Statement 2018

There is no specific report that monitors the use of COCF funds. Further information on the progress of projects supported by the COCF should be sought from the department sponsoring the project.

	Amount of Grant Paid
Department and Project Funded	2018	2019
Community and Constitutional Affairs - Phase 6 Prison Masterplan	£6,500,000
Law Officers’ Department – funding the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR). Jersey became a core donor to the Basel Institute’s ICAR, supporting efforts to build capacity in developing countries to prevent and combat financial crime and return stolen assets through international cooperation.	£250,000
Environmental Protection - combatting fly tipping		£6,300
States of Jersey Police - Fraud Prevention Forum outreach programme		£10,000
TOTAL	£6,750,000	£16,300

No grants were paid from the COCF in 2017.

Amounts shared under Asset Sharing Agreements

A breakdown of Asset Sharing Agreements up to October 2017 was provided as part of the previous Freedom of Information request linked above.

An updated version of this breakdown is provided in the attached spreadsheet - “Asset Sharing”.

Asset Sharing

Asset sharing agreements between the Government of Jersey and other jurisdictions are agreements to repatriate confiscated funds.

In relation to the Framework for Return of Assets from Corruption and Crime to Kenya (FRACCK), the asset-sharing agreement has not yet been concluded. No funds have been repatriated under this agreement to date.

Current balance on the COCF

As at 31st July 2019, the total held in the COCF was £6,968,198.

This balance includes funds that are ring-fenced in relation to asset sharing agreements that have not yet concluded and requests for funding that are going through the appraisal process.

Article applied

Article 23 Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.