Found: Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services
Written Evidence Feb. 21 2024
Inquiry: FraudFound: FRA0092 - Fraud Office of the City Remembrancer, City of London Corporation Written Evidence
Written Evidence Feb. 21 2024
Inquiry: FraudFound: FRA0080 - Fraud Home Office Written Evidence
Written Evidence Feb. 21 2024
Inquiry: FraudFound: FRA0077 - Fraud National Crime Agency Written Evidence
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle fraud-related crime in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
In May 2023, the Government published the Fraud Strategy which set out a national response to combat the threat. Fraud has since reduced 13% compared to last year (Sept 2022), including a 10% decrease in London. The rate has continued to decrease since the Fraud Strategy was launched in May 2023.
Through the new Online Safety Act and the Online Fraud Charter the Government is working to prevent the British public encountering fraud at source. The Fraud Strategy also committed £100m of investment in law enforcement, and created a new National Fraud Squad, to increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters. Furthermore, fraud will be made a priority for local police forces through the Strategic Policing Requirement.
We also launched the new national anti-fraud behaviour change campaign launched on 12th February, which will help people spot and take action to avoid fraud.
Apr. 04 2024
Source Page: I. Accounting Officer assessment: Fraud Reform Programme. 5p. II. Letter dated 26/03/2024 from Lord Sharpe of Epsom to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding the above document for deposit in the House Libraries. 1p.Found: Accounting Officer assessment: Fraud Reform Programme. 5p. II.
Mentions:
1: Mel Stride (Con - Central Devon) a year has been overpaid in the welfare system due to fraud and error. - Speech Link
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by his Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is proud of its record in proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system. As part of wider cross-government counter fraud investment, the government established the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In its first year, the PSFA delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.
The PSFA produces a Fraud Landscape Report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-government-fraud-landscape-annual-report-2022). This provides data on fraud and error detection, loss and recoveries in central government, outside of the tax and welfare system and includes the Cabinet Office. The 2020/21 Report was published in March 2023. To note it outlines all figures rounded to the nearest £0.1m.
In 2022-23, as published in the department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, the Cabinet Office detected error of £3.48m, of which £3.43m was recovered in year and detected fraud of £60k of which none has been recovered to date. Efforts to recover the detected fraud are continuing at this time. The Cabinet Office does not hold specific data on fraud for previous years.
The Cabinet Office does not recognise a loss arising from error or fraud until efforts to recover the funds have been explored. This means that write-offs of error and fraud usually occur in the years after the original problem arose.
Losses recognised and written off by the Cabinet Office for the last three years are:
2022/23 - £4,800
2021/22 - £327,400
2020/21 - £703,300
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling fraud which is why in May 2022 the Department launched a robust plan to drive down fraud and error from the benefits system, alongside investment of £900 million that will deliver £2.4 billion of savings by the end of 2024/25. This plan includes proposed powers to require the transfer of data from third-parties, which has been introduced as part of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (No.2). This legislation is forecast to save up to an additional £600m over the Treasury scorecard period. The Department has set out a target to deliver £1.3bn in savings from our dedicated counter-fraud and error resource in 2023/24 as set out in the department’s Annual Reports and Accounts.
Written Evidence Jan. 24 2024
Inquiry: FraudFound: FRA0081 - Fraud TSB Written Evidence