Cash seized form criminals is to be reinvested in the fight against serious organised crime under a new funding package announced by the Scottish Government. The money will be used to further boost the recovery of assets from criminals and will see the establishment of a new Cash Seizure Unit in Strathclyde.

The money will also go towards the recruitment of a further 19 financial investigators across Strathclyde, Tayside and Lothian police forces, who have agreed to match fund the investment bringing the overall new investment to one million pounds over the next two years.

The Scottish Government's Cashback for Communities scheme which uses money recovered from criminals to reinvest  in local communities has been hugely successful with over £13m being awarded last year throughout Scotland. Last year in Glasgow organisations like Integrating Toryglen Community Ltd were awarded over £11,000 whilst the Temple Shafton Youth Project, which helps young people by giving them the resources and opportunities to succeed in life and was last year presented with the Glasgow Community Champions Young Community Award, benefited from over £27,000.

Commenting on the announcement Sandra White MSP for the Glasgow Region said: "It is fitting that the money recovered from criminals will be used to target and recover other criminals' proceeds of crime and I believe that this sends out a clear message to those involved in serious crime that  there is nowhere to hide.

"I also welcome the fact that Strathclyde Police will use this extra money to boost their successful 'break the circle of violence campaign' aimed at showing youngsters the consequences of being involved in gangs and trying to stop them getting involved in the first place."

Notes:

1.The Scottish Government has recently  agreed with ACPOS that £250k for each of the next two years of money recovered from the proceeds of crime will be made available to the police service to recruit financial investigators.  This sum will go to projects in Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders and Tayside.

2.The three forces have each agreed to match-fund the new investment from the Scottish Government, making a total investment of £1m over two years.

3.The funding will enable Strathclyde to appoint 11 new members of police staff to focus on Financial Investigation and to ensure the full powers of the Proceeds of Crime Act are being exploited. Lothian and Borders will now have five additional Financial Investigators and Tayside three additional Financial Investigators. The effectiveness of the pilots will be evaluated and if successful may be rolled out to other forces.

4.The total amount secured through the Proceeds of Crime Act in the 12 month period from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009 was #3,508,548 from criminals convicted of relevant offences and £2,823,533.36 from cash forfeitures and asset recovery orders granted by the civil courts.

5.The Serious Organised Crime Strategy was published by the SOC Taskforce, which is chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, on 2 June 2009.  It can be accessed here.

6.The Strategy set out how the Taskforce would:

• DIVERT - individuals (particularly young people) from engaging in or using the products of serious organised crime.
• DISRUPT - the activities of serious organised crime groups.
• DETER - through measures to protect communities, businesses and the public sector from serious organised crime.
• DETECT - by boosting capacity and improving co-ordination to give serious organised criminals no place to hide.
  

7.Under the heading of Disrupt, the Strategy committed to improve the seizure of assets from criminals and the confiscation of their profits.

This included a specific commitment to "using some of the money seized from criminals to boost financial investigations" (paragraph 44), which is fulfilled in today's announcement.

8.The Taskforce holds its eighth meeting today, 15 September 2009.  On the agenda is a detailed Implementation Plan for the Serious Organised Crime Strategy.  Detail of the Implementation Plan will be published in due course once it has been agreed.

9.Since the launch of CashBack for Communities in 2007, over £13 million has been invested in a range of projects for young people. This includes:

• £2.5 million to the Scottish Football Association,
  
• £4 million to YouthLink,
  
• £1.4 million to Scottish Rugby Union,
  
• £1.7 million to Scottish Sports Futures and BasketballScotland,
  
• £2 million to the Sports Facilities Fund,
  
• £0.6 million to Arts and Business Scotland,
• £1.2 million to Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council for a new Creative Identities initiative.

More announcements will follow.

10.Over 100,000 young people have benefited and tens of thousands more will benefit as more projects are rolled out across Scotland.