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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were (a) cautioned and (b) prosecuted for social security fraud in each year since 2000; how much was involved; what were the penalties; and if he will make a statement. [118077] Malcolm Wicks: Information is not held centrally on the value of fraud where a prosecution or sanction has been applied. The available information is in the table. Prosecutions and sanctions since 2000 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 DWP Local Total DWP Local Total DWP Local Total authority authority authority1 Custodial sentences2 660 1-- 1-- 650 1-- 1-- 470 1-- 1-- Community sentences3 2,700 1-- 1-- 3,070 1-- 1-- 2,810 1-- 1-- Other sentences4 8,040 1-- 1-- 7,470 1-- 1-- 5,990 1-- 1-- Total successful 11,400 1,110 12,510 11,180 1,700 12,880 9,270 1,691 10,961 prosecutions Cautions 7,840 -- 7,840 7,030 1,470 8,500 7,080 2,435 9,515 Administrative penalties 7,710 550 8,260 6,520 1,131 7,651 7,190 1,605 8,795 Total 26,950 1,660 28,610 24,730 4,301 29,031 23,540 5,731 29,271 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Breakdown not available Notes: 1. Local authority figures are available for first three quarters of 2002-03 only. 2. Imprisonment, Young Offenders Institute, or custodial and fine. 3. Community Service. 4. Absolute discharge, conditional discharge, compensation only, admonishment, fine, community rehabilitation, suspended sentence, supervision order, Young Offenders Institute, attendance centre, unknown. 5. Cautions were made available to local authorities as a sanction from the start of 2001-02 6. Figures for financial year 2000-01 are taken from local authority management information returns. It is possible that there could be some double counting with DWP data if there were cases which involved a joint prosecution. 7. Management information data for financial year 2000-01 is not available for all local authorities. The total for Great Britain includes estimates for local authorities that have not responded. These estimates are based on historical and regional data. This type of estimate is standard practice in reporting totals where there have been non-respondents. The figures for financial year 2000-01 have been rounded to two significant figures. 8. Information for 2001-02 is from a count of prosecutions and sanctions completed by all local authorities; this data is collected from local authority subsidy returns. Subsidy data may differ from management information data (shown for financial year 2000-01) at local authority level; however, analysis shows a high level of consistency between the two data sources at national level. 9. The DWP figures are from the Fraud Information By Sector database, which shows completed cases commenced in the relevant period. Due to the elapsed time between commencement of an investigation and completion of a prosecution there are cases that are inserted into previously completed data for earlier periods. All DWP totals are therefore correct at the time when quoted but subject to adjustment at a later date 10. In accordance with National Statistics Guidelines all DWP figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Due to rounding process totals may not agree.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

118077; 407 c99-100W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Convictions Fraud Fixed penalties Prosecutions Social security benefits

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk