Angela Smith (PPS
(Yvette Cooper, Minister of State), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) Link
to this | Hansard source
My right hon. Friend will be aware of the announcement made this morning that
identity theft is costing the people of this country £1.7 billion a year. I
hope he agrees that a debate on that problem would be useful, not only in
highlighting the distress caused to our constituents by this crime but in
focusing on what can be done to tackle it.
Geoff Hoon (Lord Privy Seal, House of Commons) Link to this | Hansard source
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. What is disappointing about the attitude
of many Conservative Members is that while they concentrate their criticisms
on, for example, aspects of the use of identity cards in relation to the
public sector, the private sector-particularly the banking and credit card
industries-suffers very significant financial losses as a result of identity
fraud. There is no doubt, as those organisations argue, that the availability
of an identity card system will have an enormous impact on reducing the level
of fraud. I am sorry that Conservative Members, who otherwise claim to
represent the interests of business and the financial community, have failed
to take account of that.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2006-02-02a.465.0
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-2022675,00.html
...
'In a report published yesterday, the Home Office said that the annual cost of
ID fraud had reached £1.7 billion. However, this figure was undermined by
Apacs, the group that represents payment organisations such as banks and
credit firms, which said that the cost had been grossly overestimated and that
its own figures had been misrepresented. '
'Ministers included in their total the figure of £395 million as the annual
cost of money laundering alone. But the Home Office admits that this figure is
only "for illustrative purposes" and that "no figures are currently available
on the proportion of money laundering that relies on identity fraud".
'Furthermore, the Government claims that Apacs puts the cost of ID fraud
linked to plastic cards at £504 million a year. But a spokeswoman for Apacs
said that the real figure was less than £37 million. "The £504 million is the
total losses for plastic cards. It is not just identity fraud on cards," she
said. "Within that overall figure there will be some cards stolen in the post,
some skimmed or cloned, some lost or stolen."'