Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the new fraud reporting service that is due to replace Action Fraud within the next year will (a) record and (b) publish data on the number of reported incidents in which (i) fraud and (ii) identity theft has been attempted but no financial losses have occurred.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
As joint leaders of the National Fraud Squad (NFS), the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) which sits within the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the City of London Police (CoLP), will provide the central oversight and leadership of the NFS. The NCA and CoLP can flexibly direct resources within the national and regional structures as needed, depending on the nature of the capability used. The budget will sit with the organisation that owns the capability.
The new fraud reporting service will continue to take reports of attempted fraud where no loss has occurred. The service will also continue to take reports on ID theft where there is an attempted or actual fraud involved.
Fraud and cyber crime trends are published on the Action Fraud website and can be found at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-stats. These data include both attempted fraud and overall losses.
We are working closely with law enforcement and intelligence partners to improve our understanding of the international fraud threat to the UK, to allow us to strengthen our upstream response and tackle fraud at its source.
We have committed in the Fraud Strategy to working with the NCA and FCDO to assess the countries where fraud comes from, and where we can make the greatest impact in tackling it. The fraud threat to the UK is varied, with some international jurisdictions more commonly reported as connected to certain types of fraud than others e.g., romance fraud in North-West Africa, call centre enabled fraud in South-East Asia and investment fraud from different parts of Europe.
Law enforcement data can be sensitive and publication of the NFIB estimation would be a matter for City of London Police. We will continue to work with law enforcement partners to scope what data can be shared publicly.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Paragraph 21 of the Fraud Strategy published on 3 May 2023, which were the top five countries identified as sources of fraud originating from overseas or having an international element; and what contribution did each of those countries make to the 70 per cent of fraud estimated as originating from overseas or having an international element.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
As joint leaders of the National Fraud Squad (NFS), the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) which sits within the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the City of London Police (CoLP), will provide the central oversight and leadership of the NFS. The NCA and CoLP can flexibly direct resources within the national and regional structures as needed, depending on the nature of the capability used. The budget will sit with the organisation that owns the capability.
The new fraud reporting service will continue to take reports of attempted fraud where no loss has occurred. The service will also continue to take reports on ID theft where there is an attempted or actual fraud involved.
Fraud and cyber crime trends are published on the Action Fraud website and can be found at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-stats. These data include both attempted fraud and overall losses.
We are working closely with law enforcement and intelligence partners to improve our understanding of the international fraud threat to the UK, to allow us to strengthen our upstream response and tackle fraud at its source.
We have committed in the Fraud Strategy to working with the NCA and FCDO to assess the countries where fraud comes from, and where we can make the greatest impact in tackling it. The fraud threat to the UK is varied, with some international jurisdictions more commonly reported as connected to certain types of fraud than others e.g., romance fraud in North-West Africa, call centre enabled fraud in South-East Asia and investment fraud from different parts of Europe.
Law enforcement data can be sensitive and publication of the NFIB estimation would be a matter for City of London Police. We will continue to work with law enforcement partners to scope what data can be shared publicly.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the new National Fraud Squad will (a) operate under the leadership of a dedicated commander, (b) have a single, unified budget to be deployed flexibly across its operational units and (c) be able to deploy its 400 staff flexibly across those operational units.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
As joint leaders of the National Fraud Squad (NFS), the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) which sits within the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the City of London Police (CoLP), will provide the central oversight and leadership of the NFS. The NCA and CoLP can flexibly direct resources within the national and regional structures as needed, depending on the nature of the capability used. The budget will sit with the organisation that owns the capability.
The new fraud reporting service will continue to take reports of attempted fraud where no loss has occurred. The service will also continue to take reports on ID theft where there is an attempted or actual fraud involved.
Fraud and cyber crime trends are published on the Action Fraud website and can be found at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-stats. These data include both attempted fraud and overall losses.
We are working closely with law enforcement and intelligence partners to improve our understanding of the international fraud threat to the UK, to allow us to strengthen our upstream response and tackle fraud at its source.
We have committed in the Fraud Strategy to working with the NCA and FCDO to assess the countries where fraud comes from, and where we can make the greatest impact in tackling it. The fraud threat to the UK is varied, with some international jurisdictions more commonly reported as connected to certain types of fraud than others e.g., romance fraud in North-West Africa, call centre enabled fraud in South-East Asia and investment fraud from different parts of Europe.
Law enforcement data can be sensitive and publication of the NFIB estimation would be a matter for City of London Police. We will continue to work with law enforcement partners to scope what data can be shared publicly.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Footnote 15 of the Fraud Strategy published on 3 May 2023, if she will publish a copy of the professional estimation of international fraud offending, produced by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau in February 2022.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
As joint leaders of the National Fraud Squad (NFS), the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) which sits within the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the City of London Police (CoLP), will provide the central oversight and leadership of the NFS. The NCA and CoLP can flexibly direct resources within the national and regional structures as needed, depending on the nature of the capability used. The budget will sit with the organisation that owns the capability.
The new fraud reporting service will continue to take reports of attempted fraud where no loss has occurred. The service will also continue to take reports on ID theft where there is an attempted or actual fraud involved.
Fraud and cyber crime trends are published on the Action Fraud website and can be found at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-stats. These data include both attempted fraud and overall losses.
We are working closely with law enforcement and intelligence partners to improve our understanding of the international fraud threat to the UK, to allow us to strengthen our upstream response and tackle fraud at its source.
We have committed in the Fraud Strategy to working with the NCA and FCDO to assess the countries where fraud comes from, and where we can make the greatest impact in tackling it. The fraud threat to the UK is varied, with some international jurisdictions more commonly reported as connected to certain types of fraud than others e.g., romance fraud in North-West Africa, call centre enabled fraud in South-East Asia and investment fraud from different parts of Europe.
Law enforcement data can be sensitive and publication of the NFIB estimation would be a matter for City of London Police. We will continue to work with law enforcement partners to scope what data can be shared publicly.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to tackle benefit fraud.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
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 over 2 million 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: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent estimate his Department has made of the (a) sum and (b) proportion of (i) Official Development Assistance spending and (ii) British International Investments that were written off as a result of fraud in each of the last 10 years for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
There have been no write-offs of British International Investment spending in the last ten years as a result of fraud. The suitability of international organisations receiving Official Development Assistance (ODA), including the projects they organise and grants they provide, is continually assessed through FCDO annual reviews and business cases, as set out in the Department's Programme Operating Framework.
The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) independently scrutinises UK ODA to international organisations to assess value for money and impact, including recent ICAI reviews of tackling fraud in multilateral organisations. For example, the 'Tackling fraud in UK aid through multilateral organisations' review was published on 22 March 2022.
ODA spend is reported on a calendar year basis in line with international reporting requirements; from 2015 to 2021 totalled £95.2 billion. Based on write off and fraud loss data, our records show that losses written off because of fraud cases totalled £3.0 million over the financial years 2015/16 to 2021/21. This equates to 0.003% of the proportion of ODA written off because of fraud.
The tables below provide the breakdown requested.
Calendar Year | UK Net ODA (£) |
2015 | 12,135,596,440 |
2016 | 13,377,131,230 |
2017 | 14,051,240,110 |
2018 | 14,542,017,180 |
2019 | 15,175,654,880 |
2020 | 14,476,944,180 |
2021 | 11,422,628,910 |
Total | 95,181,212,930 |
Financial Year | £ of write off/fraud |
2015/2016 | 156,967 |
2016/2017 | 58,095 |
2017/2018 | 1,096,551 |
2018/2019 | 955,262 |
2019/2020 | 401,121 |
2020/2021 | 71,886 |
2021/2022 | 218,349 |
Total | 2,958,231 |
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of HMRC's rate of return on investment for (a) covid-schemes fraud and error and (b) tax compliance recovery.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At Budget 2021, the Government announced an investment of over £100 million in the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce, to be in place for two years to April 2023, to combat fraud in the COVID-19 financial support schemes administered by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self Employed Income Support Scheme and Eat Out To Help Out). Including amounts recovered through compliance work on the COVID-19 schemes before the taskforce was formed, HMRC expects to recover £1.1bn by September 2023.
On 13 October 2022, HMRC set out their plans in an issue briefing ”HMRC issue briefing: tackling error and fraud in the Covid-19 support schemes” to transition COVID-19 compliance activity to business-as-usual compliance teams by the end of September 2023.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the level of investment required in HMRC compliance teams to reduce the size of the tax gap.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to tackling tax avoidance, evasion, and all other forms of tax non-compliance. Our tax gap is on a long-term downward trend and is among the lowest worldwide, falling from 7.5 per cent in 2005-06 to 5.1 per cent in 2020-21.
HMRC has considerable resources and staff numbers to tackle non-compliance in the tax system. As set out in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts, in the last three financial years HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group has spent £3.8 billion on tackling avoidance, evasion and other forms of non-compliance, including £1.2 billion in 2019-20, £1.2 billion in 2020-21, and £1.4 billion in 2021-22.
At Autumn Statement 2022 the Government announced a further £79 million investment to enable HMRC to allocate additional staff to tackle more cases of serious tax fraud and address tax compliance risks among wealthy taxpayers. This is forecast to bring in £725 million of additional revenue over the next five years.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to increase the HMRC staff working on compliance yield in relation to the tax gap.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to tackling tax avoidance, evasion, and all other forms of tax non-compliance. Our tax gap is on a long-term downward trend and is among the lowest worldwide, falling from 7.5 per cent in 2005-06 to 5.1 per cent in 2020-21.
HMRC has considerable resources and staff numbers to tackle non-compliance in the tax system. As set out in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts, in the last three financial years HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group has spent £3.8 billion on tackling avoidance, evasion and other forms of non-compliance, including £1.2 billion in 2019-20, £1.2 billion in 2020-21, and £1.4 billion in 2021-22.
At Autumn Statement 2022 the Government announced a further £79 million investment to enable HMRC to allocate additional staff to tackle more cases of serious tax fraud and address tax compliance risks among wealthy taxpayers. This is forecast to bring in £725 million of additional revenue over the next five years.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to replace the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce with an alternative scheme after September 2023.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At Budget 2021, the Government announced an investment of over £100 million in the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce, to be in place for two years to April 2023, to combat fraud in the COVID-19 financial support schemes administered by HMRC (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self Employed Income Support Scheme and Eat Out To Help Out).
As planned between April and September 2023, compliance staff currently deployed on the taskforce will move back to business-as-usual tax compliance activity. Ongoing investigations into overclaimed grants that haven't been concluded will be worked to completion. HMRC will consider the risk of overclaims of COVID-19 grants alongside other tax compliance risks when prioritising cases for a compliance check. This is the most efficient way to ensure we protect and recover taxpayers’ money, as it allows HMRC to deal with all aspects of a customer’s potential non-compliance in a single check.
HMRC remains committed to tackling error and fraud in the COVID-19 support schemes where this is the most cost-effective use of resources, and we are not writing off any overpayments of grants. We will continue to take action against those who have deliberately sought to abuse the COVID-19 financial support schemes, while recognising there will be people who have made honest mistakes.