Criminal Investigation: International Cooperation

The Home Office does not currently hold publishable data on breakdowns of the number of mutual legal assistance requests received by the UK Central Authority that relate to a) freezing (restraint) in criminal proceedings; b) confiscation and forfeiture in criminal proceedings; and c) requests for non-conviction-based recovery.

Publishable data on the average time to acknowledge or respond to specific mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests is not currently held by the Home Office.

The UK Central Authority aims to acknowledge receipt of a new MLA request within a few days of receipt, and aims to respond to requests promptly, with the requests concerning the most serious offences treated as a high-priority to ensure justice is done and that the UK maintains its reputation as a high quality criminal justice partner.

The Home Office is the central authority for Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland except for tax and fiscal customs criminal matters, which are coordinated by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Requests seeking assistance solely from Scotland are sent directly to the Crown Office in Edinburgh.

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement permits UK prosecutors to send outgoing mutual legal assistance evidential requests directly to EU Member States. Requests for freezing (restraint) and confiscation are transmitted via Central Authorities.

The top countries for MLA requests to the UK Central Authority in alphabetical order were:

Please note that these figures are taken from a local case management system, therefore this data has come from a live operational system and is subject to change as records in that system are updated as cases progress.