Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he Department has made of the potential impact of financial (a) hardship and (b) abuse on trends in the levels of women prosecuted for benefit fraud in the last 12 months.

DWP has not assessed or analysed the impact on any groups over the last 12 month. We have robust processes around managing our prosecutions and apply our policies consistently across all groups.