Fraud (Hansard, 28 October 1992)

§ Mr. McLoughlin

Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from A. G. Johnson to Mr. Donald Dewar, dated 28 October 1992: As the Employment service is an Executive Agency, it is the responsibility of Mike Fogden the Agency's Chief Executive to answer Parliamentary Questions about relevant operational matters. In his absence, I am replying to your questions to the Secretary of State for Employment:

i. how many people were prosecuted for fraud by the Department in the latest year for which figures are available,
ii. what is the number of whole time equivalent staff employed to detect and prosecute suspected fraud, and what is the cost of their employment,
iii. how much the Department has saved from the investigation of fraud in the latest year for which figures are available, and what are the targeted savings for the next financial year.

The latest year for which figures are available is that of the financial year ending 31 March 1992 during which a total of 2,265 people were prosecuted for fraud. We currently have 1,300 people, of whom 780 are Inspectors, employed in the detection and prosecution of benefit fraud. The total cost of our fraud operations amounted to £13.34 million. The net savings from our investigations into benefit fraud amounted to £34.34m. We do not set targets for benefit savings accrued from benefit fraud investigation. Our performance is measured by the number of claims withdrawn following investigation by Inspectors and our target is for 58,000 such claims to be withdrawn by the end of the present financial year.

As decided by the Administration Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.