Restraint orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act

Request

For every restraint order under the Proceeds of Crime Act that was obtained between January and July 2014 and remains live; Please break each one down by the month they were obtained in 2014, and indicate which of the following describes the current case status:

A) Pre-charge
B) Charged
C) Wanted on warrant
D) Convicted
E) International request on behalf of overseas authorities
F) Other (Please describe)

Please also indicate which cases involve confiscation or civil recovery.

Response

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds information within scope of the request. Information held relating to the current status of live Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) Restraint Orders as indicated at point E) of the request – ‘International request on behalf of overseas authorities’ is withheld under section 27 of the FOIA – International relations. Please see the section 17 refusal notice below for an explanation of this exemption.

Information relating to domestic live POCA Restraint Orders, for period January to July 2014, within the ‘case status’ category indicated at point D) ‘Convicted’, can be located in ‘FOI Request 11367 attachment’ where it should be read in conjunction with the caveats appended to it. No Orders, within the time period specified, were confirmed as being ‘Wanted on Warrant’, as indicated at point C) of the request. In relation to point F), the information held concerns Restraint Orders in respect of confiscation cases only. Information concerning civil recovery cases is not held.

Ref: 11367

Section 17 Notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

WITHHOLDING INFORMATION

Section 27(1) (a) of the FOIA recognises the need to protect information that would be likely to prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and other states if it was disclosed.

Reliance on the section 27(1)(a) exemption is subject to a public interest test. We acknowledge that releasing information on this issue would increase public knowledge, but we assess that disclosing information about live overseas Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) Restraint Orders would harm the UK’s relations with those countries making the requests, and due to the low number concerned these could be identifiable.

In the circumstances, we have concluded that the public interest in withholding information pertaining to overseas orders outweighs the public interest in disclosing it at this time.