PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Organised Crime (15 May 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what definition his Department uses for serious and organised crime.

Asked by:
Alison McGovern (Labour)

The Department uses the definition as set out by the Home Office - ‘’ We define serious and organised crime as individuals planning, co-ordinating and committing serious offences, whether individually, in groups and/or as part of transnational networks’’.

The Department has a strong counter-fraud function, which includes specifically targeting serious and organised crime including cyber-crime, which identifies and stops illegal activity and saves money for the taxpayer.

Current estimates are that serious and organised crime directly accounts for no more than 6% of the £7.4 billion of benefit fraud reported in the 2023/24 statistics, as it is most likely captured in the Abroad and Conditions of Entitlement (Identity) categories of fraud reported there.

Answered by:
Paul Maynard (Conservative)
21 May 2024