Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value is of (a) fraudulent tax credit claims, (b) benefit fraud and (c) tax avoidance in each of the last three years; and what the evidential basis is for those estimates.

Overall levels of tax credit error and fraud and the evidential basis for those results are available at: https://www.gov.uk/search?q=tax+credit+error+and+fraud+statistics.

The United Kingdom has one of the lowest tax gaps in the world. The most recent ‘Measuring tax gaps’ publication indicates that the estimated tax gaps attributable to avoidance behaviour for the last three years for which data is available were as follows:

2014-15 - £2.2 billion

2013-14 - £2.4 billion

2012-13 - £2.2 billion

The publication is available to view in full at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps.

The information requested on the estimated value of benefit fraud is available via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system.