Assets Recovery Agency
Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2007-08
The Assets Recovery Agency (merged with the Serious Organised Crime Agency on 1st April 2008) works to stop people benefiting from the proceeds of crime. This report sets out the ARA's activities and achievements over the previous year.
Title: Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2007-08
Author: Assets Recovery Agency
Number of Pages: 53
Date published: August 2008
Availability: Download full report 
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Statutory Background
The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) was formed in February 2003 as a result of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) 2002. POCA provided a number of agencies with asset recovery powers, including the police, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, prosecutors and other Government departments. The range of POCA powers encompassed cash forfeiture, criminal confiscation, civil recovery and taxation; however, ARA was the only body with civil recovery powers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the only UK body with specific POCA tax recovery powers.
The Serious Crime Act (SCA) 2007 provided for ARA to merge with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA). These mergers took place on 1st April 2008. ARA’s operational functions were merged into SOCA and its training functions merged into the NPIA. The SCA mainstreamed ARA’s civil recovery powers by extending them to SOCA, the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland.
Departmental Aims and Objectives
ARA’s purpose was to help cut crime and make communities safer by taking away the proceeds of crime. This was done by:
- working in close partnership with the law enforcement community; �� keeping the public interest central to its work;
- fully using all its unique powers firmly and fairly; and
- promoting professionalism and the highest standards among all those involved in asset recovery
ARA identified a number of priorities relating to its Key Performance Indicators. These were:
- to adopt and conduct criminal confiscation, civil recovery and taxation investigations under the provisions of POCA 2002;
- to promote and support the use of the powers conferred by POCA through the successful training of financial investigators and to provide such support and expertise to the law enforcement community as may otherwise be required; and
- to ensure continuous development of staff and working practices and move towards best practice standards in all aspects of the Agency.
Getting a copy
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Last update: Thursday, September 04, 2008