HC Deb 31 July 1981 vol 9 cc677-8W
Mr. Hudson Davies

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will detail the number and type of cases investigated by the special social security investigators during the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available; what percentage of these resulted in prosecution or intended prosecution; and what are the comparable figures for the three previous 12-month periods.

Mr. Rossi

The numbers and categories of cases investigated by the Department's special investigators in the year ended February 1981 are:

Numbers
Undisclosed income from earnings of claimant or dependant as employee 27,159
Undisclosed income from self-employment 2,686
Undisclosed income from other sources 471
Fictitious desertion 2,756
Undisclosed living-together 15,166
Others 1,097
Contributory Benefit cases 3,605
Total 52,940

The percentage of investigations made by special investigators where prosection was authorized is:

per cent.
1977–78 11
1978–79 12
1979–80 11
1980–81 7

Mr. Hudson Davies

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will detail the number and type of cases investigated by the special social security investigators in Wales during the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available; what percentage of these resulted in prosecution or intended prosecution; and what are the comparable figures for the three previous 12-month periods.

Mr. Rossi

I refer the hon. Member to the reply my right hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Mr. Prentice) gave him on 8 August 1980—[Vol. 990, c.518]—giving the number of fraud cases investigated in Wales in the three years up to February 1980. The corresponding number of investigations in the year ended February 1981 is 5,223. In addition, the number of cases authorised for prosecution in Wales, expressed as a percentage of the number of cases investigated, is:

Year Per cent.
1977–78 33
1978–79 32
1979–80 30
1980–81 25