Official Statistics

Asset recovery annual statistical bulletin: background quality report

Published 7 September 2023

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

1. Introduction

This quality report relates to the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin. It was developed to provide users with information on how this release meets the standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. This quality report covers 10 areas including Relevance, Accuracy and reliability, Timeliness and punctuality, Accessibility and clarity, Coherence and comparability, Trade-offs between output quality components, Assessment of user needs and perceptions, Performance, cost and respondent burden and Confidentiality, transparency and security.

The Methodology and Quality Report provides an overview of the methodology behind the statistics produced and associated data quality issues.

2. Relevance

Relevance is the degree to which the statistical product meets user needs in both coverage and content.

The Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin includes data on the proceeds of crime restrained, seized, frozen, imposed and recovered over the previous 6 financial years. It provides a breakdown for the proceeds of crime restrained, seized, frozen, imposed and recovered by the following variables: jurisdiction, financial year, offence type, agency sector and legislative power under POCA.

Statistics on Civil Recovery Orders cannot be broken down by jurisdiction, offence type and agency sector. Differences in recording processes and availability of data means statistics on the use of funds by POCA Agencies received through ARIS, ARIS Top Slice funding and International Asset Recovery are presented over different time periods.

The statistical bulletin is used by law enforcement and prosecution agencies to inform operational decisions, and the Home Office alongside other government departments to inform asset recovery policy decisions with the aim of contributing to an increase in the value of proceeds of crime recovered.

There is regular engagement with users on the commentary and content of the bulletin to ensure it reflects the needs of end users. The release of the statistical bulletin in September 2021 involved internal and external stakeholder consultations on the new structure and content developed for the bulletin.

3. Accuracy and reliability

Accuracy and reliability relate to the proximity between an estimate and the unknown true value.

Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD)

The data used to produce statistics on values and volumes of proceeds of crime in this bulletin are extracted from the Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD). It is a central database which has records for orders where proceeds of crime are restrained, frozen, imposed and recovered across all POCA Agencies.

Data is entered by accredited Financial Investigators (FIs) within POCA Agencies which includes the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and local authorities. The operational nature of the data means that it is updated on daily basis by these agencies as FIs create or update entries for each defendant’s respective order. Therefore, statistics reported in the latest bulletin which refer to current orders may be subject to revisions that control for data errors.

Civil recovery data

The data presented on Civil Recovery Order receipts is provided by the NCA. It includes Orders on proceeds of crime seized, detained, and recovered through Civil Recovery Order powers. The database includes orders undertaken by several agencies including the NCA.

Data is collated by the NCA and is updated regularly to reflect changes in the progress of orders, the resolution of orders and addition of new orders

ARIS allocations data

The data presented for ARIS Allocations is extracted from an administrative database managed by Home Office. This database uses data recorded on JARD for Confiscation Orders and the Home Office internal finance system’s (METIS) data for Forfeiture Orders. It includes information on orders that have been processed under the POCA 2002 legislation within a given financial year and provides details such as the lead agency and amount of assets recovered.

Data has been cleansed by the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS) team and the Home Office Finance team as part of the processes undertaken for each quarter for calculating ARIS Allocations.

Survey data on the Use of ARIS Funds

The data used to produce statistics on the Use of ARIS Funds is based on a survey of responses from POCA Agencies which is managed by the Home Office. It is a survey which is run on an annual basis and is distributed to all POCA Agencies who are involved with the ARIS Scheme and is designed to develop an understanding of how they spend funds which are allocated to them.

International asset recovery data

The data used to produce statistics on International Cooperation and Asset Return are taken from administrative databases managed by the Home Office. They provide information on the orders executed by law enforcement in England and Wales, or Northern Ireland on behalf of another country, or vice versa. Data are also recorded on orders where funds recovered in the UK are returned to another country. The data are entered regularly by the Home Office and will reflect the progress of orders as and when there are any changes. The data entered on the database can be quality assured against other data sources managed by POCA Agencies including JARD.

Data presented in this report on grand corruption has been requested from agencies in a reporting exercise conducted by the Home Office. The statistics presented will only represent those agencies which have provided a return for this reporting exercise and not necessarily the entire group of agencies who engage in this work.

The accuracy of the statistics is dependent on the recording and management of information held by the respective agencies. Where possible, the data entered has been quality assured against other data sources managed by POCA Agencies including JARD.

Supporting information on known data quality issues with the various data sources used in the bulletin are outlined in the Methodology and Quality report. This also includes the International Asset Recovery data which has been badged as experimental in the latest release due to ongoing developments to the data collection process.

The statistical team responsible for producing this bulletin have implemented quality assurance checks for the various data sources to ensure any missing entries are cleansed from data. If there is a known error identified for a data source the statistical team will have taken measures to correct these and provide an explanation in supporting documents.

4. Timeliness and punctuality

Timeliness refers to the time gap between publication and the reference period. Punctuality refers to the gap between planned and actual publication dates

The Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin is released 4 months after the end of the reporting period for the latest financial year. The statistics included in the bulletin on the proceeds of crime restrained, seized, frozen, imposed and recovered is reported on a financial year basis, which covers the period between April until March in the following year. Hence, the annual bulletin released in September presents data collected up to the most recent financial year.

Data on the proceeds of crime as at the end of March is available in April. The statistical team takes data extracts in July to allow sufficient time for revisions on current orders processed towards the end of the financial year by POCA Agencies.

The bulletin takes several weeks to produce due to the collation of data from several administrative and operational databases. Once the data is collated, there are several assurance rounds conducted by analysts within the Home Office to ensure the reported statistics meet the appropriate quality standards. Each release of the bulletin in September will also be approved in advance by senior stakeholders.

The publication dates for the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin are pre-announced on the release calendar available on GOV.UK which is in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. If there are any changes to a pre-announced release date, there will be an announcement made on the Home Office website and an explanation provided on the reasons behind the delay.

There have been no incidents where the statistical bulletin has been released late for all releases to date.

5. Accessibility and clarity

Accessibility is the ease with which users are able to access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available and the availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality and sufficiency of the metadata, illustrations and accompanying advice

Commentary included in the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin is published using the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format, that is produced using internal UK government HTML Markdown software. There are accompanying data tables published with the bulletin and are provided in the Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) format.

Accompanying the bulletin is a Background Context note which provides:

• definitions for the legislative powers available under POCA
• background on the introduction of legislation on Asset Recovery

There is also a Methodology and Quality report which is released alongside the bulletin and provides information on:

• details on the various data sources used to produce statistics
• methodology for producing proceeds of crime statistics
• statistical quality information, including the rounding policy
• links to further information that can be accessed by end users

Both these documents are published in the HTML format.
From September 2020, the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin has been published in an accessible format which is in line with accessibility regulations for digital content from public bodies outlined in The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 legislation. It involved converting statistical commentary files previously published in Portable Document Format (PDF) into the HTML documents and migrating the data tables from Microsoft Excel to ODS format.

6. Coherence and comparability

Coherence is the degree to which data that are derived from different sources or methods, but refer to the same topic, are similar. Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain

The Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin is produced using data from various data sources. The data sources used in the bulletin are outlined below:

• JARD is used to extract data for proceeds of crime
• NCA operational data is used to extract data for Civil Recovery Orders
• survey on the Use of ARIS Funds is used to extract data for the Use of ARIS funds
• HO administrative database is used to extract data for International Asset Recovery
• reporting exercise conducted by HO is used to collate date on International Grand Corruption
• HO administrative database is used to extract data for ARIS Allocations

For these respective data sources with exception to JARD, there is no additional data which consistently records data for orders on the proceeds of crime restrained, seized, frozen, imposed and recovered by POCA Agencies that can be used to make comparisons against the figures presented in the bulletin. Data extracted from JARD can be compared with agency specific administrative databases that record orders involving the recovery of proceeds of crime under powers available under POCA. These databases are subject to limitations due to data coverage.

There have been changes to methodologies underpinning some of the statistics presented in the bulletin which has impacted the comparability of data published in previous releases. Any changes to the methodology are highlighted in the statistical bulletin and further information is provided in the Methodology and Quality report for users to understand the impact on reported statistics.

Data within the bulletin is presented for the following jurisdictions: England and Wales and Northern Ireland. Data recorded for Scotland is excluded from the statistical release as it has a separate asset recovery system. This data cannot be broken down into lower geographical breakdowns which means any amendments to geographies has no impact to the reported statistics.

Each release of this bulletin provides comparisons on statistics reported over a period of the previous 6 financial years.

7. Trade-offs between output quality components

Trade-offs are the extent to which different aspects of quality are balanced against each other

The operational nature of JARD means that a Financial Investigator (FI) can make amendments to an order within a given financial year after it has finalised, mainly to update the proceeds of crime associated with an order after their recovery. The data collection process for this bulletin accommodates for this by extracting data at a later point to minimise the number of missing values recorded for orders. This trade-off ensures users are provided with high quality data as close to the period of interest.

Statistics presented on International Asset Recovery is produced using the latest data available for orders completed where the proceeds of crime have been recovered in a financial year. There might be ongoing orders within the same financial year where an agreement has been reached between the involved foreign states, but the proceeds of crime are due to be recovered. These orders are recorded on a basis determined by the date where the proceeds of crime are recovered and distributed to the UK state.

The associated data quality issues with these statistics are outlined clearly in the statistical bulletin with them being badged as experimental.

8. Assessment of user needs and perceptions

Assessment of user needs and perceptions refers to the processes for finding out about users and uses, and their views on the statistical products

The Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin has been developed in line with the relevant customers of this product. It has consisted of regular discussions with policy customers in the Home Office and with wider operational partners such as National Economic Crime Centre, National Police Chiefs’ Council and Department of Justice Northern Ireland. This ensures customers have opportunities to provide feedback on changes they would like to see implemented in the following release where possible.

In advance of the release in September 2022, an internal consultation was held with different groups of customers including policy and analysts within the Home Office. The intention of this consultation was to understand how the statistical bulletin is used currently for these different groups and identify areas where the bulletin required future improvements.

The bulletin includes a section which provides contact details for external users to provide feedback on the statistical bulletin. These details can also be used by users to ask for clarification on information in the bulletin.

The Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin has no further public consultation planned to date.

9. Performance, cost and respondent burden

Performance, cost and respondent burden covers the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of the statistical output

The Annual Statistical bulletin for Asset Recovery uses various administrative databases which the Home Office has access to because they are either managed internally or there is a data sharing agreement with the relevant agency. It means there are no direct costs associated with the production of the statistical bulletin.

The release of the Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin takes 12 weeks for the lead analyst to collate data and undertake the appropriate quality assurance within a team of additional analysts. This includes the lead analyst extracting data from various data sources which can involve lengthy procedures.

As part of the statistical release, the Principal Statistician and the Chief Statistician provide sign off on the statistical bulletin which requires additional time. These sign offs form part of the overall checks on data presented in this release.

There is a respondent burden on law enforcement agencies who are requested to provide information on how they spend funds allocated through the ARIS scheme in a separate survey generated by the statistical team. This burden is reduced for these agencies given the survey is live for 7 weeks.

10. Confidentiality, transparency and security

Confidentiality, transparency and security relate to the procedures and policy used to ensure sound confidentiality, security and transparent practices

In advance of each release, the bulletin is treated under the pre-release conditions which are outlined in the Code of Practice for Statistics. These conditions require the bulletin and supporting documents to be circulated to only those listed on the pre-release access list with the appropriate protective marking applied.