§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many incidents of identity theft have been reported to the police in each of the last 12 months; [143385]
(2) what statistics are gathered by his Department on identity fraud. [143387]
§ Beverley HughesIt is not a criminal offence for a person simply to use another identity. However, false identities are often used to facilitate other offences such as deception and money laundering.
The police do not generally record incidents of identity theft because prosecutions are recorded for the offences facilitated by false identities.