§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were prosecuted for housing benefit or council tax benefit fraud in the last year for which figures are available; how many of those prosecutions were successful: and if he will break down the succesful prosecutions by type of punishment. [44097]
§ Malcolm WicksInformation on the number of people successfully prosecuted for housing benefit and council tax benefit fraud in the last year for which figures are available is in the table. Information is not held centrally on successful prosecutions by type of punishment.
992W
Fraud investigations conducted by Local Authorities (LAs) 2000–01 Number Cases referred to the LA fraud/investigation section for further action 460,000 Cases referred to the LA fraud/investigation section for further action that were investigated 370,000
Fraud investigations conducted by Local Authorities (LAs) 2000–01 Number Cases where fraud was established and a Weekly Benefit Saving was claimed 100,000 Cases referred by LAs for prosecution 2,300 Successful prosecutions 1,100 Source:
Housing Benefit Management Information System Quarterly Administration Returns April 1999 to March 2000.
Notes:
1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.
2. The figures have been rounded to 2 significant figures.
3. Data is not available for all 409 Local Authorities. These totals include estimates for Local Authorities that have not responded which are based on historical and regional data. This type of estimate is standard practice in reporting totals where there have been non-respondents.