Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of the current average waiting time for fraud cases to be allocated for investigation by police forces in England; and if he will make a statement.

The Home Office does not hold information on the length of time taken to allocate fraud cases to police forces for investigation. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau is responsible for determining whether there are sufficient grounds to allocate a fraud case to the police for investigation. It is then a matter for receiving forces to determine if they are going to undertake an investigation, which is driven by local resourcing and priorities.