Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle cyber-related crime in (a) Cardiff Central constituency, (b) Cardiff local authority area and (c) Wales.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Tacking cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s National Cyber Strategy 2022-25, which is supported by £2.6 billion of investment through the National Cyber Fund.
Key to delivery is ensuring that local policing has the resources needed to deal with the cyber threats we face. In 2023/24, the Home Office is receiving £18 million from the National Cyber Fund to provide a range of capabilities and resource to tackle and respond to cyber crime. This funding is supplemented by a further £16 million of Home Office funding through the Police Settlement Programme.
This funding continues to build law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional, and local levels to ensure they have the capacity and expertise to deal with the perpetrators and victims of cyber crime. We directly fund a specialist Cyber Crime Unit at South Wales Police, and more specialist teams at the TARIAN Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU). This ROCU team is integral to our response to high-harm, high-impact crimes like cyber extortion, and is a multi-disciplinary team of police officers and police staff seconded from the three forces of South Wales, Gwent and Dyfed-Powys.
TARIAN ROCU works closely with South Wales Police Cyber Crime Unit and work to intervene if people are deemed at risk of becoming involved in cyber offending. This includes working with young and vulnerable individuals offering other intervention and diversion opportunities to young people outside of cyber education, such as life skills, and job interview skills. South Wales Police Cyber Crime Unit engage with all local authorities within the area to ensure effective delivery.
Businesses and organisations based in Wales work closely with ROCUs across the private and public sectors, and at community level. Additionally working collaboratively with the Welsh Government to support the offer of funding to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) for Cyber Essential training, which is a government backed scheme that helps protect organisations against a range of cyber attacks.
We have also rolled out Regional Cyber Resilience Centres in Wales and in each of the other nine policing regions. The Centres are a collaboration between the police, public, private sector and academic partners to provide cyber security advice to SME’s so that they can protect themselves better in a digital age. Details of the Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales can be found at www.wcrcentre.co.uk
All vulnerable victims of fraud and cyber crime in Wales receive contact and PROTECT advice from law enforcement, specifically aimed at helping them to protect themselves in future from revictimization.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle cyber-related crime in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s National Cyber Strategy 2022-25, which is supported by £2.6 billion of investment through the National Cyber Fund.
Key to delivery is ensuring that local policing has the resources needed to deal with the cyber threats we face. In 2023/24, the Home Office is receiving £18 million from the National Cyber Fund to provide a range of capabilities and resource to tackle and respond to cyber crime. This funding is supplemented by a further £16 million of Home Office funding through the Police Settlement Programme.
This funding continues to build law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional, and local levels to ensure they have the capacity and expertise to deal with the perpetrators and victims of cyber crime. We directly fund a specialist Cyber Crime Unit at West Midlands Police, which covers Solihull, and another, more specialist team, at the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU). This ROCU team is integral to our response to high-harm, high-impact crimes like cyber extortion.
This Regional Cyber Crime Unit for West Midlands (RCCUWM) also works with businesses and organisations based in Solihull, across the private and public sectors, and at community level. Under the Local Resilience Forum, RCCUWM work with Solihull Council, amongst others, to build stronger cyber security and resilience. A key part of RCCUWM’s work is to ensure the integrity of our Critical National Infrastructure providers, and they have a long-standing partnership with NHS Birmingham Solihull (BSOL) Integrated Care System and NHS England.
We have also rolled out Regional Cyber Resilience Centres in London and each of the nine policing regions, including the West Midlands. These are a collaboration between the police, public, private sector and academic partners to provide cyber security advice to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises so that they can protect themselves better in a digital age. Details of the Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands can be found at Cyber Resilience | The Cyber Resilience Centre For The West Midlands (wmcrc.co.uk)
All vulnerable victims of fraud and cyber crime in Solihull receive contact and Protect advice from law enforcement, specifically aimed at helping them to protect themselves in future from revictimization.
The specialist RCCUWM Prevent Team also work to intervene if people are deemed at risk of becoming involved in cyber offending. RCCUWM deliver the National Cyber Choices programme and have delivered multiple initiatives across Solihull, including working with schools to help them identify those at risk. Solihull local police officers support these important safeguarding interventions.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle fraud-related crime in Solihull constituency.
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.
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.
Overall, fraud in England and Wales has reduced 13% compared to last year. There has also been a 5% decrease in the number of fraud reports made in the West Midlands, demonstrating progress on the Fraud Strategy’s commitment to protecting the public’s hard-earned money.
We will shortly be launching a new national Anti-Fraud campaign, which will further equip the public with the tools they need to spot and take preventative action to avoid fraud.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the closure of the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce on trends in the level of uncollected tax.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Budget 2021, the government announced an investment of over £100 million in the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to combat error and fraud in the COVID-19 financial support schemes administered by HMRC. This investment enabled HMRC to deploy compliance staff to the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce for the lifetime of the taskforce, and to backfill for those staff to prevent an opportunity cost to the collection of tax revenues.
As planned, HMRC began to transition the activity and the staff working on the taskforce into business-as-usual tax compliance activity from March 2023.
Our compliance activity on the COVID-19 support schemes up to end September 2023 has protected over £1.6 billion worth of grants. This is made up of £430 million prevented from being paid out and over £1.2 billion recovered from overpayments.
We remain committed to tackling error and fraud in the COVID-19 support schemes where this is the most cost-effective use of resources.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the announcement on ending civil service expansion by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 2 October 2023, whether the cap on the civil service headcount will affect the recruitment of the (a) 400 fraud investigators announced in the Fraud Strategy 2023 and (b) 475 full-time equivalent staff for tackling money laundering and asset recovery announced in the Economic Crime Plan 2023-26.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Through the Spending Review and the new Economic Crime Levy we are providing additional funding to tackle Economic Crime of £400 million up to the end of 2024/25. The headcount cap announced by the Chancellor applies to the overall size of the Civil Service, excluding the devolved administrations. Policing, including Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) who are a major recipient of additional Economic Crime investment, are out of scope.
As part of the process, the Government will identify risks, and ensure this is implemented in a way which preserves frontline service delivery, business critical activity and key Government priorities. This is not a recruitment freeze, but rather about stopping unchecked growth overall and moving towards a leaner and more efficient Civil Service workforce.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s plan on Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Fraud Plan set out our ambitions in three key areas. We are making good progress in delivering our investment in frontline services and bringing together the full force of the private and public sectors. Decisions on legislation are for the King’s Speech.
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, with reference to Figure 7 on page 297 of his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, if he will provide further details on what is being provided through funding for extra resource for Counter Fraud and Compliance over the Spending Review period.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We continue to use additional investment to build on our existing fraud and error work, as set out in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts, DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This includes enhancing our counter-fraud resources and investing in the use of data and analytics to identify potential fraud and error.
Asked by: Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of (a) fraud and (b) money laundering investigations that are undertaken by the National Crime Agency.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
To help increase the number of fraud and money laundering investigations that are undertaken by the National Crime Agency, the Government is increasing law enforcement investigative capacity, allocating £400 million to tackling economic crime, including fraud.
As announced in the Fraud Strategy, published in May 2023, we are establishing a new National Fraud Squad, consisting of over 400 new investigators across the NCA, City of London Police and Regional Organised Crime Units. Investment into the National Fraud Squad will continue to enhance existing capabilities and increase resources to better tackle fraudsters who target the UK public and private businesses.
Furthermore, in March 2023, the government published the Economic Crime Plan 2 (ECP2), to help reduce money laundering, as well recover more criminal assets, cut fraud, combat kleptocracy and drive down sanction’s evasion. ECP2 includes 475 new financial crime investigators (in addition to those announced in the Fraud Strategy) dedicated to tackling money laundering and asset recovery. Of the 475 new financial investigators, 198 will be for the NCA.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of benefits that were fraudulently claimed in each of the last ten financial years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) estimates on the value of both fraud and error in the benefit system, can be found in our annually published statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. Reports for each of the last ten financial years can be found at:
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This year’s figures show that the work we have been undertaking to reduce Fraud and Error is having an impact, with the headline rate of overpayment having decreased by 0.4% from 4.0% to 3.6%.
Our Fraud Plan, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022, sets out our approach and explains how additional investment is allowing us to recruit 1,400 more staff into our counter-fraud teams and develop enhanced data analytics as a means of preventing and detecting fraud and error.
Additionally, we are creating a dedicated team to deliver Targeted Case Reviews of existing Universal Credit claims. This supports wider Government aims of strong oversight and control and efficiently managing the public purse. Over the next five years we expect to review millions of potentially high-risk claims, including suspicious cases which entered our system at the height of the pandemic.
More information on our Fraud Plan, which also explains our ambition to modernise and strengthen our legislative framework, can be found here:
Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) reduce fraud within the benefits system.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) estimates on the value of both fraud and error in the benefit system, can be found in our annually published statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. Reports for each of the last ten financial years can be found at:
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This year’s figures show that the work we have been undertaking to reduce Fraud and Error is having an impact, with the headline rate of overpayment having decreased by 0.4% from 4.0% to 3.6%.
Our Fraud Plan, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022, sets out our approach and explains how additional investment is allowing us to recruit 1,400 more staff into our counter-fraud teams and develop enhanced data analytics as a means of preventing and detecting fraud and error.
Additionally, we are creating a dedicated team to deliver Targeted Case Reviews of existing Universal Credit claims. This supports wider Government aims of strong oversight and control and efficiently managing the public purse. Over the next five years we expect to review millions of potentially high-risk claims, including suspicious cases which entered our system at the height of the pandemic.
More information on our Fraud Plan, which also explains our ambition to modernise and strengthen our legislative framework, can be found here:
Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).