Social Security Benefits: Fraud

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were (a) convicted and (b) received a custodial sentence in respect of an offence of benefit fraud in (i) each of the last two years and (ii) each quarter of each of the last two years; and how many were dealt with by way of caution in the same period. (206260)

The available information is in the following table. The information for 2007-08 is not yet complete.

*Numbers of convictions, custodial sentences and cautions for benefit fraud in Great Britain*
2006-07	Convicted	Custodial	Cautions
Q1	1,972	222	3,282
Q2	1,790	146	3,221
Q3	1,408	137	2,970
Q4	1,708	108	2,503
Total	6,878	613	11,976
Source: 2006-07 figures are FIBS (Fraud Information by Sector) only.

Volume 477: debated on Monday 16 June 2008