§ 22. Mr. Henry Bellingham (North-West Norfolk) (Con)What plans she has to improve ways in which firms can be protected from fraud. [147844]
§ The Solicitor-General (Ms Harriet Harman)The Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office are engaged in the work across government of the criminal justice agencies to improve the protection of firms against fraud.
§ Mr. BellinghamThe Solicitor-General and I have corresponded on this matter. I am grateful to her for taking seriously the issue of fraud suffered by small firms, but more needs to be done. Does she agree that it would make sense if the SFO's main advisory panel contained a small firms representative? I appreciate that she may not know the exact answer, but can she tell the House how many stop now orders have been issued by the Office of Fair Trading?
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI shall have to write to the hon. Gentleman with a response to his question about the OFT. I shall consider including a small business representative on the SFO advisory panel, but I agree that more needs to be done to protect businesses, both large and small, against fraud. That is a matter of ensuring that Government Departments and agencies work together. We intend to make sure that that happens, but we must also work with business to ensure that everything possible is done to advise and inform firms about how to protect themselves against fraud. We are also working with the Law Society and the professional accountancy organisations, and we are working internationally as well. We aim to toughen up on the proceeds of crime so that fraudsters do not think that they can commit a crime and live off the proceeds.
§ Mr. Mark Todd (South Derbyshire) (Lab)I wish to draw the attention of my right hon. and learned Friend to a case in my constituency, in which a small firm was able to produce what I thought was very substantial evidence of fraud by a company in Hampshire. My conversations with the local police in Hampshire have revealed that the main difficulty about pursuing the matter was the lack of available resources, and also that dealing with small-business fraud is given a relatively low priority in local police forces. Is not that a critical part of this picture?
§ The Solicitor-GeneralMy hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of the amount of resources that the tackling of 960 fraud is able to command. Fraud is not just a technical, victimless crime—there are real casualties along the way in terms of people's jobs, finances and, often, homes. I ask my hon. Friend to bring the case to my attention and I shall look into it.