To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many successful prosecutions his Department provided evidence for in the last 12 months on cases involving (a) false representations for claiming benefit and (b) dishonest representations for claiming benefit. (144082)

The information requested is not available other than at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people were (a) charged with and (b) found guilty of benefit fraud in each local authority area in each of the last 10 years; (144142)

The information is not available broken down by local authority area.

For the available national information on prosecutions, I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave on 23 March 2007, Official Report, column 1187W, to the hon. Member for Ilford, North (Mr. Scott); for the available national information on levels of fraud, I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave on 18 April 2007, Official Report, columns 697-98W, to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws).

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the latest available rates of combined fraud and error were for each of his Department’s administered benefits for the latest year for which information is available. (144905)

The most recent available information is contained in the DWP report “Fraud and Error in the Benefit System—April 2005 to March 2006” copies of which are available in the Library.

The report is also available online at:

www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd2/fem/fem_apr05_mar06.pdf