To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of calls made to the benefit fraud hotline led to (a) investigation and (b) conviction of individuals named by callers in each year since 1997. (116590)

The National Benefit Fraud Hotline is very cost effective—last year it cost nearly £1 million to run but identified £21.4 million in recoverable overpayments. Between April 1999 and March 2006, 4,233 people have been convicted as a result of calls made to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline. A proportion of the 110,485 people who have received a penalty or caution over! the same period will also have been initially reported via the Benefit Fraud Hotline but this information has not been collected.

Information regarding calls made, and the proportion of such calls that led to investigation and conviction is only available from April 2004. Available information regarding the number of calls actually answered from 1997 is in the following table.