I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is discussing the budget at this very time. Tackling fraud and error in the welfare system is a priority for the Government, which is why we passed the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025, giving the Department for Work and Pensions more powers to stop fraud in its tracks, recover money lost and prevent overpayments.

The Government regularly engages with a variety of stakeholders on issues relating to motor insurance, including fraud.

The cross-government taskforce on motor insurance was formed in 2024, to fulfil the government’s commitment to tackling the soaring cost of motor insurance in the UK. One of the actions in the taskforce report published on 10 December 2025 is “Tackling uninsured driving, fraud and crime”. Where the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) identifies unlawful content, including ghost broking, ad-spoofing and material posted by finfluencers, it will seek to get the content removed and work with other partner agencies, including law enforcement, working to combat these activities.

The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with the Home Secretary on this issue.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for a variety of offences including offences involving the use of illegal number plates on vehicles, in the Outcomes by Offences tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

The number of convictions related to the illegal use of vehicle number plates can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Overall Volumes’ tab and filtering the “HO offence code” drop down for:

• 81403 - Fraud, forgery etc. associated with registration and licensing documents (MOT)

• 81090 - Other motor vehicle licence, trade licence, registration mark, trade plate and registration book offences (except forgery and deception offences) (MOT).

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) does not hold information about the number of vehicle keepers who have been convicted for number plate offences as enforcement of number plates offences is a matter for the police.

The DVLA does not have the relevant powers to take forward prosecutions of number plate suppliers. Such prosecutions are taken forward by the police and Trading Standards.

The DVLA’s enforcement officers work with the police and Trading Standards to carry out educational and compliance visits to registered number plate suppliers. Enforcement officers carry out inspections to check working practices and inspect number plates on the premises. Enforcement officers can also inspect records held, take copies and/or seize the records.

The DVLA’s enforcement officers carry out intelligence led enforcement activities to tackle a wide range of offences, actively working with partners to investigate potential offences. While the DVLA does not take forward prosecutions, its enforcement officers may attend court as an expert witness in any such proceedings.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) does not hold data on the level of use of illegal number plates. On road enforcement is a matter for the police.

The DVLA works with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime.

The law requires that anyone who supplies number plates for road use in the UK must be registered with the DVLA. It is a legal requirement for suppliers to carry out checks to ensure that number plates are only sold to those who can prove they are entitled to the registration number. Number plate suppliers must also keep records of the plates they have supplied. Selling a number plate without carrying out these required checks carries a maximum penalty of a fine of £1,000 and the potential removal from the Register of Number Plate Suppliers (RNPS).

The DVLA is considering options to ensure a more robust, auditable RNPS process which would enable tighter checks on number plate suppliers.

Since Autumn Budget 2024, including the new announcements at Autumn Budget 2025, the Government have committed to gross savings of £14.6bn up to the end of 2030/31 from fraud, error and debt activity in the welfare state in Great Britain.

The Department publishes yearly estimates of fraud and error in the benefit system. The latest of which is available here: Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2024 to 2025 estimates - GOV.UK, and relates to benefit claims sampled between September 2023 and October 2024.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of cloned number plates.

The law requires that anyone who supplies number plates for road use in the UK must be registered with the DVLA. It is a legal requirement for number plate suppliers to carry out checks to ensure that number plates are only sold to those who can prove they are entitled to the registration number. Number plate suppliers must also keep records of the plates they have supplied. Selling a number plate without carrying out these required checks carries a maximum penalty of a fine of £1,000 and the potential removal from the Register of Number Plate Suppliers (RNPS).

Officials are also considering options to ensure a more robust, auditable RNPS process which would enable tighter checks on number plate suppliers. On-road enforcement for offences relating to the display of number plates is a matter for the police. The DVLA assists the police and Trading Standards in their enforcement against number plate suppliers, including those who trade illegally. When notified, the DVLA will investigate and pass on intelligence to the police who are responsible for investigating this criminal matter.

Anyone who thinks their number plate may have been cloned should contact the police immediately. Any fines received should be returned to the issuing authorities. The DVLA can provide customers with letters that can be used as supporting evidence and can also provide a replacement registration number where appropriate.

The Department’s Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) sets out DWP’s approach to reducing fraud and error in the benefit system. The 2023/24 ARA can be found here:

ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2023-24 (publishing.service.gov.uk) and states that in 2023/24 DWP has estimated to have saved around £18 billion through preventative activity through frontline controls and detection by counter fraud teams. The 2024/25 ARA will be published shortly providing an up-to-date assessment including our progress in reducing the overall overpayment rate from 3.6% in 2023/24 to 3.3% in 2024/25, with the Universal Credit overpayment rate falling by 21% from 12.4% to 9.7% over the same period.

The Department has committed to significant fraud, error and debt measures at Autumn Budget 2024 and Spring Statement 2025, which OBR has estimated will deliver an additional £9.6bn savings over the next five years.

The Royal Mint engaged the relevant law enforcement agencies as part of the fraud incident detailed in their Annual Report and Accounts for 2022-23. These investigations are confidential and as such, we cannot comment on whether the transactions were traceable or the location of the perpetrators of the fraud.

As outlined in The Royal Mint Trading Fund’s Annual Reports and Accounts for 2022-23, an external fraud incident occurred impacting The Royal Mint. A small number of fraudulent transactions were made on the Royal Mint’s website. The incident did not impact Royal Mint customers details and there was no risk to customer data.

The Royal Mint continually make changes to their anti-fraud procedures, reflecting the dynamic nature of the external fraud landscape.

As shareholder of The Royal Mint, HM Treasury are regularly updated on risk controls and have been supporting the strengthening of these processes and procedures.

Fraud and error in the social security system currently costs the taxpayer almost £10 billion a year and, since the pandemic, a total of £35 billion of taxpayers’ money has been incorrectly paid to those not entitled. The DWP is determined to reduce those levels.

The Eligibility Verification Measure (EVM) in the proposed Fraud, Error and Debt Bill will not give DWP access to any bank accounts, nor any information on how claimants spend their money. The proposed new power instead helps verify benefit eligibility, using very limited information from banks and financial institutions. As set out by the National Audit Office, access to data is key to prevention and detection of incorrect payments.

EVM will require banks and financial institutions to look within their own data to highlight where someone may not be eligible for the benefits they are receiving. The data will only be sent to DWP if there is a possible conflict with the benefit eligibility rules, such as the £16,000 capital limit in Universal Credit or individuals living abroad without notifying the Department.

The information gathered will help DWP identify incorrect payments, prevent debts from accruing for the claimant and help identify where there may be fraudulent activity. No benefit entitlement decision will be made solely because of the data obtained under EVM and a final decision on benefit entitlement will always involve a human agent.

Further details will be set out when the Bill is introduced to Parliament.

At Autumn Budget, the OBR updated their forecasts. This shows the impact of the Department’s plans to reduce fraud and error levels across the scorecard period. In addition to this, the Department provides annual updates on the effectiveness of their plans through the publication of the Annual Report and Accounts, where the latest UC forecast and outturn position for the financial year is published. DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 (HTML) - GOV.UK.

Whilst we have published forecasts in the past, they have been superseded and the latest forecast is not in the public domain.

The Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously, and published a comprehensive Fraud Strategy in May last year. Through this the Government will work: with industry to remove the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit; with intelligence agencies to shut down fraudulent infrastructure; with law enforcement to identify and bring the most harmful offenders to justice; and with all partners to ensure that the public have the advice and support they need

Further, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) commenced enforcement of the cryptoassets financial promotion regime in October last year, requiring such promotions to be fair, clear and not misleading. This is aimed at improving consumers’ understanding of the risks and benefits associated with cryptoasset purchases and ensuring that cryptoasset promotions are held to the same standards as similar risk financial services products. In the next phase of its work, the Government is creating a comprehensive financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets in the UK.

DWP measures fraud and error in the welfare system via annual national statistics published each May.

The Department has a target to save at least £1.3 billion in 2023-24 from its dedicated counter fraud and error resource. Further information on this is included in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) Report, available on GOV.UK. The ARA report for financial year 23/24 is expected to be published Summer 2024.

The Department is unable to provide convictions data for State Pension fraud cases relating to deceased individuals.

State Pension fraud and error is low, but it does exist, with £100m estimated to have been overpaid in State Pension in 2022/23.

The Government Counter Fraud Function COVID-19 Fraud Intelligence Team (now part of the Public Sector Fraud Authority Intelligence Hub) established the Covid Fraud Hotline in October 2020 in partnership with Crimestoppers. It ended on 30 June 2023.

Its creation led to 5,124 referrals of potential fraud being disseminated to public bodies.

The figures provided below do not include Intelligence Team staff costs.

1. The set up cost for the Covid Fraud Hotline with Crimestoppers was £105,000 excluding VAT.

2. Following this, the operating costs of the Hotline between October 2020 and on 30 June 2023 was £114,940 excluding VAT

In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180m of savings to the taxpayer. The PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. In its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.

The investigation by law enforcement agencies into an external fraud incident impacting the Royal Mint website remains ongoing. Therefore, I am unable to provide further detail at this time.

The incident did not impact Royal Mint customers details and there was no risk to customer data.

The Government and industry signed the Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter, a voluntary agreement to improve counter-fraud efforts, in October 2021.

Under the Charter, the sector has introduced firewalls that detect and stop scam texts from reaching customers. The firewalls have proved successful, and have stopped 700 million scam text messages since January 2022. The firewalls also monitor and stop “FluBot malware” used by criminals to infect and take over a victim’s phone to steal credit or debit card details.

We are keen to build on the success of the first Charter and start work on a renewed version in the coming months to push criminals out of using telecommunications to contact victims.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not have a central record showing the number of fraud cases relating to Covid-19 currently awaiting an outcome. To obtain the data would require manually reviewing CPS case records at disproportionate cost.