The Home Secretary has announced that twenty two and a half million pounds a year of criminals’ cash is to be recycled back into communities and front-line agencies. David Blunkett said the move showed that new powers to confiscate, freeze, seize and tax criminals’ assets were beginning to bite.The first phase of the Government’s action to strip criminals of their wealth saw the introduction of the Proceeds of Crime Act, which created the Assets Recovery Agency and gave law enforcement agencies power to take the profit out of crime. Mr. Blunkett said the next phase would be about taking money away from career criminals’ pockets, recycling it for the benefit of all, and reinvesting the money to build the capacity of law enforcement agencies to seize even more.

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Ofsted has praised three initiatives designed to sweep away the barriers which prevent achievement by pupils in disadvantaged areas. Inspectors say the schemes are producing promising work, but better monitoring and evaluation are needed.In three reports Ofsted inspectors say they found encouraging work in Excellence Clusters and City Learning Centres – two initiatives under the Excellence in Cities programme. They say, too, that progress is being made in addressing difficult issues in Education Action Zones but they also say the programmes are not yet consistently meeting the key objective of improving achievement.

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By Coenraad van der Poe The target to make public services accessible on line by 2005 has created an unprecedented volume of systems development work. Meeting deadlines and building systems that satisfy users are measures of success. The author suggests ways to bring success and quotes from experience.