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<p>The UKFIU does not hold figures for the proportion of Suspicious Activity Reports
resulting in action by (1) police, or (2) other relevant authorities. The UKFIU received
over 700,000 SARs in 2020/21 and made these reports available for police and other
authorities to access, including in some instances allocating particular high-risk
reports to specific partners. The cost of establishing actions resulting from each
SAR would be disproportionate, noting that:</p><p>• a SAR is a report of suspicion
as assessed the reporter and is not evidence of criminal conduct.</p><p>• a single
SAR may be used several times by several different agencies for different purposes
e.g. the information within the same SAR may inform a) HMRC about taxation b) local
police about fraud or theft and c) a government department about a regulatory issue
or a weakness in a financial product.</p><ul><li>some SARs provide new and immediate
opportunities to stop crime and arrest offenders, others support existing investigations
or help uncover potential criminality that could be investigated, while others provide
intelligence useful at a point in the future.</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>some SARs are
disseminated to foreign jurisdictions.</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>even if no criminal
investigation is conducted, a SAR may contain information that contributes to understanding
current threat trends or patterns. This helps reporters and law enforcement to plan
and prevent against new crime trends.</li></ul><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Further
information can be found in the Suspicious Activity Reports Annual Report 2020, including
that last year almost £172m of assets were denied to suspected criminals as a result
of SARs reporting.</p>
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