§ Mr. CryerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many people are engaged in his Department on combating fraud in financial institutions; and at what annual cost.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonResponsibility for combating fraud in financial institutions is shared between a number of bodies. Within my Department, staff in the investigations division currently total 210. The division's direct costs in 1993–94 are £16 million, including the cost of private sector inspectors and investigators. The division carries out investigations under the Companies Acts and other legislation throughout the corporate sector, where there are grounds for suspicion of wrongdoing and it brings criminal proceedings in respect of a wide range of offences, mainly reported to it by the Insolvency Service or brought to light by its own investigations. It also takes other action to protect the public, including action to disqualify directors and to wind up companies. Cases involving fraud in financial institutions constitute only a small part of the work of investigations division and no statistics are maintained which would separately identify resources devoted to this work.