UK police are creating a new system to help tackle economic crime and improve the tracking, management and recovery of criminal assets, the Policing Digital Service (PDS) has announced.
Designed to replace the outdated Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD), which has been used since 2003 to locate and seize illicit assets including cash, property, vehicles and high-value goods, Project Asset Recovery IT (ARIT) aims to streamline the way criminal assets are tracked and shared, helping disparate teams work together more effectively and improving the evidence provided to courts.
It will also aim to ensure that criminal money is not used to fund further illegal activities, with the PDS committing to working closely with police officers, financial investigators, prosecutors and local authorities to build a cloud system that meets their individual needs.
The system is also expected to support international recovery and cryptocurrency recovery capabilities, helping more than 3,500 users manage the recovery of assets held overseas or in digital currencies. All this will happen within a single, optimized system.
ARIT's announcement follows the Home Office's conclusion that JARD's technology is outdated, expensive to maintain and lacks the flexibility needed for more complex investigations.
The need to replace JARD has been known for some time, with the Home Office initially publishing contract notice – costing approximately £25 million – for the “Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD) IT System Replacement” in August 2020.
“JARD is a legacy system that has been modified and updated several times over its more than 15-year life cycle,” the notice states. “However, it is now reaching the end of its useful life because it does not meet modern expectations of electronic data collection and subsequent analytical filtering and manipulation.”
Now contract at NEC Software Solutions, the Japanese software provider behind facial recognition algorithms used by the Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police – for approximately £14.4 million PDS said it aims to create a “minimum viable product” by September 2026.
At this stage, JARD will be decommissioned and the more than 180 government and law enforcement agencies using it, including HM Revenue and Customs, will be migrated to the national ARIT system by the end of this year.
Computer Weekly contacted the Home Office about what happened with the previous contract notice (as PDS was only officially commissioned to work on JARD in April 2024) and why it took five years to find a supplier to develop a replacement for the system, which was declared obsolete in August 2020. However, by the time of publication, the Ministry of Internal Affairs had not responded.
“ARIT represents a bold step forward in our mission to equip UK law enforcement agencies with the digital tools needed to combat the growing threat of economic crime,” said Tony Eastoe, CEO of PDS and former Biometrics Commissioner for England and Wales.
“This project is a testament to the impact of collaboration and innovation in the public service, and I am proud of the role PDS plays in providing a solution that helps protect communities and ensure crime doesn't pay.”
Marco Fiorentino, chief executive of NEC, added: “The new system will make it easier to protect the public and prevent criminals from profiting from illegal activities. With ARIT, whether a police officer seizing a suspect's luxury car, a financial investigator tracking down laundered cryptocurrency, or a council officer handling illicit money, they will be able to quickly and easily record and trace proof”.
“This will lead to faster action, clearer evidence and better outcomes in court.”
PDS said the project falls under the Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery (AMLAR) Program led by the Home Office's Economic Crime Branch and is a “key” pillar in the department's wider work. Economic Crime Plan.
Under the plan, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) – one of the law enforcement agencies that will use ARIT – estimated in 2021 that while exact amounts are unknown, there is a “real possibility” that more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or UK corporate entities each year.
In May 2024, the then British Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell said that almost 40% of the world's “dirty money” passes through the City of London and other crown domains.
Latest statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs illegal asset seizures show that £284.5 million of assets were recovered through confiscation, forfeiture and civil recovery orders in the financial year ending March 2025. This is 15% more than in the previous financial year.
