Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many fraud prosecutions were carried out in England and Wales in each Crown Prosecution Service business area.

The table below shows the number of defendants prosecuted and finalised in 2013-14 by the Crown Prosecution Service in each business area and the Central Casework Division, where the Principal Offence was categorised as ‘Fraud and Forgery’.

The category of ‘Fraud and Forgery, comprises a number of offences including offences prosecuted by way of the Fraud Act 2006, fraudulently evading income tax, VAT, excise duty or national insurance, bankruptcy offences, money laundering, forgery or using a false instrument and obtaining property, services or pecuniary advantage by deception.

Data Source: CPS Management Information System

The Central Casework Division includes ‘Fraud and Forgery’ prosecutions previously undertaken by the prosecution function of the Department for Work and Pensions.

The Principal Offence Category is assigned at the end of a prosecution to indicate the most serious offence with which a defendant is charged at the time of finalisation. It is not possible to disaggregate the outcomes of individual offences, such as fraud, without undertaking a manual search of case records which would incur disproportionate cost.