HC Deb 19 February 1997 vol 290 cc589-90W
Ms Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will list by individual benefit the total amount of money his Department estimates has been saved by detecting fraud in each of the last five years; [14578]

(2) what were the estimated total savings to public funds accruing from the detection of fraud in each of the last five years. [14581]

Mr. Heald

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.

Year Savings recorded by DSS £ Savings recorded by Local Authorities1£ Total£
1991–92 447m n/a 447m
1992–93 558m n/a 558m
1993–94 654m 92m 746m
1994–95 717m 171m 888m
1995–96 1.2bn2 224m 1.4bn
Notes:
1 No central records are kept of any local authority savings achieved prior to April 1993.
2Includes savings from initiatives in the Security and Control Programme.

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £1 million when under £1 billion and to the nearest £100 million when over.

2. The information is given in terms of Weekly Benefit Savings deriving from activity in the given year, not public expenditure savings which could be accounted for in that year.

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