Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) reported instances (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions for fraud conducted online in (i) 2018, (ii) 2019 (iii) 2020 and (iv) 2021.

The number of prosecutions and convictions for fraud offences that were conducted through phone calls is not centrally held in the court proceedings database, as the specific use of phone calls is not separately identified from wider fraud offences in legislation. Equally, offences conducted by text message and online are not separately identified in legislation. Identifying these offences separately would require a manual search of court records, which would be at disproportionate costs.

Published figures provide the number of prosecutions and convictions for the following offences that may include offences of fraud which occurred online, through phone calls or by text:

Computer Misuse Act 1990

• Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences (Computer Misuse Act 1990)
• Unauthorised acts with intent to impair, or with recklessness as to impairing, operation of computer, etc (Computer Misuse Act 1990)
• Unauthorised access to computer material
• Making, supplying or obtaining articles for use in offence under SS.1 or 3 (Computer Misuse Act 1990, S.3A)

Fraud Act 2006

• Dishonestly making a false representation to make a gain for oneself or another or to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk
• Dishonestly failing to disclose information to make a gain for oneself or another or to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk
• By any dishonest act obtaining services for which payment is required, with intent to avoid payment including attaching a decoder to a television to enable viewing access to cable or satellite television channels for which there is no intention of paying

The number of prosecutions and convictions can be found by searching for the above offences in the ‘Detailed offence’ filter in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987731/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2020.xlsx

Information on the number of recorded fraud offences, which may help to answer part (a) of the questions, is held by the Home Office