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Fraud: Convictions

Volume 498: debated on Thursday 29 October 2009

To ask the Solicitor-General how many convictions for offences of fraud in relation to corporate tax there were in (a) the UK, (b) the East of England region, (c) Essex and (d) Castle Point constituency in each of the last 10 years. (296071)

Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office was established in April 2005 as an independent prosecuting authority in England and Wales.

We are therefore unable to provide information prior to that date nor earlier than that indicated below. Nor can we provide statistics relating to the whole of the United Kingdom since we do not prosecute in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

In our reply we have defined fraud in relation to corporate tax as prosecutions for VAT and Direct Tax offences.

The following table indicates the number of convictions in England and Wales, the East of England region and Essex. We are unable to provide details relating specifically to Castle Point constituency.

England and Wales

East of England1

Essex

2009-102

55

14

7

2008-09

150

28

15

2007-08

226

32

21

2006-07

172

8

7

1 Prosecutions conducted in courts in the following counties: Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

2 This information covers the 6 month period April to September 2009 only

It should be noted that simply because a conviction is recorded in the East of England or Essex, it does not follow that either the crime or the defendants are linked with that area. For example, a case could have been moved there by HM Court Service for logistical reasons.