Money Lenders
(asked on 8th July 2014) - View Source
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many investigations of illegal money lenders have been carried out by illegal lending units in England, Scotland and Wales in each of the last five years; and how many such investigations have resulted in criminal convictions.
Below is a breakdown of the number of investigations conducted and convictions obtained by the Illegal Money Lending Teams in Scotland and Wales in each of the last five years, and in England for the last three years.
The England Illegal Money Lending Team was created in April 2011. Equivalent information is not available relating to the regional teams which existed prior to this.
| Investigations | Convictions | ||||
| England | Scotland | Wales | England | Scotland | Wales |
2013/14 | 399 | 39 | 28 | 55 | 0 | 2 |
2012/13 | 522 | 38 | 38 | 34 | 1 | 2 |
2011/12 | 460 | 36 | 37 | 17 | 2 | 4 |
2010/11 | Data not available | 21 | 46 | Data not available | 1 | 6 |
2009/10 | Data not available | 18 | 25 | Data not available | 0 | 5 |
The Illegal Money Lending Teams conduct complex and sensitive investigations. The length of each investigation will be influenced by the circumstances of the specific case. In some instances convictions can only be delivered through months of proactive intelligence gathering and community engagement. Because of this, some cases span multiple years and so there is not necessarily a direct link between the numbers of investigations and the numbers of convictions in any one year.