Official Statistics

About this release

Published 10 September 2026

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

The Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA 2002) enables law enforcement agencies to deprive criminals of their money, or other property connected to criminal activity, and recover the proceeds of crime. This legislative framework encompasses several asset-focussed interventions, including asset denial through restraint (restraint orders), seizures (cash, listed assets) and freezing orders (account freezing orders); and asset recovery through criminal confiscations, civil forfeitures, and civil recovery powers. Recovered criminal proceeds can subsequently be returned in compensation to victims (following criminal conviction) or reinvested for use in tackling crime through the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS).

These tools support the disruption of criminal activity and act as a supplementary mechanism or as an alternative to criminal prosecution and conviction. The ‘Economic Crime Plan 2, 2023 to 2026’ further highlights the importance and practical use of asset denial and asset recovery tools in tackling economic crime.

This release contains official statistics on the value and volume of proceeds of crime restrained, seized, frozen (the ‘denial’ phase) and subsequently recovered and receipted (the ‘recovery’ phase). The release also includes statistics on:

• the value and volume of proceeds of crime by the associated criminal offence types
• the value of compensation paid to victims
• the amount of funds distributed to POCA agencies through ARIS
• the use of funds received by POCA Agencies through ARIS
• the amount awarded to projects via ARIS Top Slice Funding
• statistics on international asset recovery, including asset sharing and the denial, recovery and return of the proceeds of grand corruption
• cryptocurrency seizures and realisations

1. Data coverage

This release refers to data covering the financial years ending March 2021 to March 2026, for the jurisdictions of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The release does not include data covering Scotland. The statistics are presented as nominal values, that is, not adjusted for inflation, unless stated otherwise and any comparisons to previous years do not account for inflation. Figures included in the latest statistical release supersede previous officially reported figures. Therefore, any direct comparisons of changes should not be made between the latest and previous releases of the asset recovery annual statistical bulletin.

Further information on methodology, data sources, data and statistics quality, background information on POCA legislation, and adherence to the Code of Practice for Statistics can be found in the accompanying User guide to Asset recovery statistics.

2. Data notes

Data presented on POCA powers and associated forfeiture seizures is produced using data collected on a live operational database, the Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD). It should be noted there will be variations in the data recorded for each financial year due to revisions made in retrospection on the live administrative JARD system. Figures included in the latest statistical release supersede previous officially reported figures. Therefore, any direct comparisons of changes in asset recovery performance should not be made between the latest and previous releases of the asset recovery annual statistical bulletin. Further information on this is outlined in the accompanying User guide to Asset recovery statistics.

Caution needs to be taken when interpreting trends related to primary offence type, due to recording practices of POCA agencies, whereby money laundering is often recorded as the primary offence because the asset relates to a range of criminal conduct, including money laundering.

Statistics on the use of funds received by POCA agencies through ARIS, the amount awarded to projects via ARIS Top Slice Funding and international asset recovery are considered as official statistics in development, due to the quality of the data source from which the statistics have been produced. Statistics on cryptoassets are badged as “official statistics in development” due to the recent introduction of the relevant cryptoasset powers and the developing data sources used to produce these statistics. For further information on experimental statistics and the data source and quality issues associated with the figures included in this release, please refer to the accompanying User guide to Asset recovery statistics.

The main changes and additions to the Bulletin are presented in detail in the User guide to Asset recovery statistics.

Law enforcement agencies have been categorised into 5 different agency groups for the purpose of asset recovery reporting. The 5 groups are:

• local police forces
• regional police forces
• local authorities
• departments, agencies and public bodies
• unassigned

These agency groups are based-on conversations with agency representatives and data categorisation on JARD. A full breakdown of the list of agencies under each group can be found in table 4.2 in the accompanying User guide to Asset recovery statistics.

3. Additional information

The accompanying User guide to Asset recovery statistics provides the following supplementary information, which may be helpful:

• further information on POCA 2002, including definitions for different civil and criminal POCA powers
• alternative legislation which can be used for the detaining and seizure of criminal assets such as the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015; it should be noted that this release does not include orders under these Acts
• information on other published asset recovery statistics

4. About these Statistics

Future releases of this statistical publication are pre-announced on the statistics release calendar on the GOV.UK website. The accompanying User guide to Asset recovery statistics provides information on the different data sources used and the processes for this statistical release, as well as other statistical information about the Bulletin.

Tables and data

Asset recovery statistics, financial years ending 2021 to 2026: data tables provides 6-year time-series data for each POCA Power, ARIS allocations, data collected by the Home Office on the use of ARIS and proceeds of crime from international cooperation.

Feedback

Home Office is keen to receive feedback on its statistical publications to maintain their relevance for users.

Any feedback should be directed to the Asset Recovery Performance team through email: POCAPerformance@homeoffice.gov.uk

Press enquiries for this release should be directed to telephone number: 0300 123 3535.

Other enquiries on these statistics should be directed by email to: CriminalFinancesandAssetRecoveryUnit@homeoffice.gov.uk