Public Accounts Committee Scrutinises Confiscation Enforcement Record
Margaret Hodge lived up to her fearsome reputation yesterday by savaging officials from the Home Office, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Head of the National Crime Agency during questioning before the Public Accounts Committee on the subject of Confiscation Orders writes Roger Sahota.
The Public Accounts Committee were considering the National Audit Office Report on Confiscation Orders published recently. It had concluded that only 26p of every £100 from the criminal black economy is seized by Confiscation Orders.
A live recording of the session is available here.
An Evening Standard report of the proceedings noted that Ms. Hodge said
“This is one of the worst reports that I have read for a long time. We are losing billions and billions and you are just not getting a grip,” she said.
“You haven’t got a strategy, you have no cooperation between you, you don’t prioritise things, you haven’t got the right information database. It’s rubbish. The fact is that you have collected hardly anything. It is pathetic.”
The original article can be found at www.confiscationorder.com