§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many hits the Targeting Fraud website has received; how many cases of suspected fraud have been reported to the website; how many of these suspected cases have been investigated; how many of them have led to a successful prosecution; and how many of them have led to a custodial sentence. [56418]
§ Malcolm WicksThe website is only one part of the Targeting Fraud advertising campaign, just as prosecution is only one way of punishing fraudsters. The campaign is succeeding in raising awareness of benefit fraud and reinforcing the message that committing fraud is wrong.
The available information is in the table.
Targeting fraud website from 7 May 2000 to 31 March 2002 Number of hits 11,653,514 Number of cases of suspected fraud reported 11,802 Number of cases accepted for action by investigation staff 2,734 Number of resulting investigations completed 673 Number of resulting benefit rate changes 2180 Number of prosecutions so far 4 Number of resulting custodial sentences 3n/a 1The figure is for the number of hits to 30 March 2002. The number of hits is recorded on a weekly basis and cannot be broken down
further.
2Figures include increases and decreases and can relate either to fraud, client error or official error.
3Information is not collated centrally on the number of custodial sentences arising from investigations as a direct result of the
Targeting Fraud Website.
Source:
Internet Team, DWP Communications and Fraud Information By Sector system.