asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many prosecutions for fraud have been brought by his Department in the last four years.

The number of prosecutions for social security fraud by my Department, including those undertaken on behalf of the Department of Employment, were as follows:

1974	10,221
1975	11,404
1976	13,113
1977–8	18,842

As from February 1977 the figures given above relate to a period from February to February which is the Department's statistical year.These figures exclude social security frauds prosecuted by the police or Post Office in 1977–78; these amounted to 7,216.