The NAO has criticised the Home Office for its ‘out-of-date’ grasp of fraud in the UK, with only a fraction of fraud cases ever being identified.

Fraud made up 41% of crime in the year to June 2022 and 987,000 fraud offences were recorded by police in England and Wales.

However, only a fraction of fraud cases end with a criminal charge, standing at 4,816 in the year ending March 2022.

It also warned that the government is relying on 'out-of-date' information to estimate the cost of fraud, using data from six years ago. 

In the report, the NAO said: ‘The Home Office does not have a complete or up-to-date estimate of the cost of fraud to the economy.

‘Its most recent estimate of the cost of fraud to individuals is £4.7bn. This is based on 2015-16 data and the department is currently working on a more up-to-date estimate.’

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