AQW 11343/22-27 Written question to the Minister of Justice
To ask the Minister of Justice what steps her Department has taken to ensure unexplained wealth orders are used to their full extent.
Asked by Claire Sugden MLA on 3 May 2024
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 3 May 2024
- Answer due by
- 21 May 2024
- Answered
- 21 May 202418 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Justice
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduced the powers for specified agencies to apply to the High Court for an unexplained wealth order (UWO) to be made. The relevant Northern Ireland provisions of the 2017 Act were brought into operation on 28 June 2021.
The role of my Department is to ensure that the legislative tools and options are there for operational partners to use. The use of UWOs is, therefore, an operational matter, and the National Crime Agency is the lead agency for UWOs in Northern Ireland.
The National Crime Agency have advised that they consider the potential use of a UWO in every civil financial investigation where the statutory threshold is met, in particular where there is no clear link between the property in question and unlawful conduct and/or where the respondent has accrued assets that are not commensurate with their known income/employment.
Their use must be considered within the wider context of the UK’s asset recovery system. The National Crime Agency will seek to use the most appropriate investigative order according to the circumstances of the case. In the vast majority of cases other investigative tools, such as Disclosure Orders, are a much more effective means to progress an investigation. Other asset recovery tools are used successfully in Northern Ireland on an ongoing basis, including applications by police and the National Crime Agency for Account Freezing Orders and Listed Asset Orders, which were also introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017.
It is important to note that they are a useful investigatory, rather than a recovery tool. A UWO can be sought without any civil or criminal proceedings having begun. While they have the potential to enhance the ability of enforcement agencies to take steps to recover the proceeds of crime, using a wider range of asset recovery powers, they are not in themselves a means to recover the proceeds of crime.