Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of crime perpetrated by fraudsters posing as legitimate food wholesalers in the last 12 months.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) does not hold crime data relating to this question. Fraudsters posing as legitimate food wholesalers are committing theft, which would primarily sit under a policing remit.

However, the FSA has published research on the broader wholistic cost of food crime. Phase 2 of the Cost of Food Crime report was published in October 2023, based on data up until 2022. It estimates the cost of food crime to the United Kingdom economy to be between £410 million and £1.96 billion per year. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/Cost%20of%20Food%20Crime%20report.pdf

Furthermore, in September 2024, the FSA published its Food Crime Strategic Assessment, in collaboration with Food Standards Scotland. This articulates our understanding of food crime threats and trends. The assessment is available at the following link:

https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/FSA-Food%20Crime%20Strategy%202024.pdf