7.In October 1998, the Prime Minister tasked the Performance & Innovation Unit (PIU) of the Cabinet Office with examining asset recovery arrangements with a view to improving the efficiency of the recovery process and increasing the amount of illegally obtained assets recovered. The PIU report was published by the government in June 2000 with a number of legislative and other proposals including:
the creation of a new agency with lead responsibility for asset recovery and containing a ‘centre of excellence’ for financial investigation training;
the consolidation of existing laws on confiscation and money laundering into a single piece of legislation;
the introduction of new powers to recover criminal assets through civil proceedings, without the need for a criminal conviction;
gateways for the exchange of information between the new agency and the other authorities;
enabling the new agency to carry out tax functions in relation to criminal gains; and
ensuring that all the agencies involved in asset recovery have sufficient trained staff to enable the system to function efficiently.