§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much money has been lost by her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies through(a) fraud and (b) theft for each year since 1996–97. [92461]
§ Alun MichaelThe Department has only been in existence since June 2001. Information covering earlier periods is therefore not available, and could be constructed retrospectively only at disproportionate cost. Annual reports, which the Treasury prepares on fraud, covering returns from both the former MAFF and DETR, are deposited in the House of Commons Library.
However, annual returns of fraud submitted by DEFRA, including its Agencies to HMT covering the financial years 2001/2002 show the total cost of theft and fraud to the department to be as follows:
Fraud(£) Theft(£) Core-DEFRA 61,066 38,678 Agencies — 226,111 Non-departmental bodies N/a N/a