What initiatives the Serious Fraud Office is undertaking to reduce the incidence of fraud.

What recent steps the Serious Fraud Office has taken to reduce the incidence of fraud.

The Serious Fraud Office is doing a significant amount of work to educate the public to reduce the incidence of fraud. In addition to its frequent engagement with the public face to face, the SFO's new website offers advice on how to protect oneself from being a target for fraud and gives an up-to-date list of current scams so that they can be recognised and guarded against.

A former senior serious fraud officer has described the prosecutions and work undertaken by the office as

"only scratching the tip of the iceberg".

Is the Solicitor-General satisfied that the Government are doing enough to deter, detect and prosecute serious fraud in the UK?

There is obviously a huge amount of fraud around, but yes, we have done a significant amount of work over the past few years. There is now a strategic authority for fraud, a fraud reporting centre is about to come online and there is a fraud intelligence centre. The City of London police are now the national fraud lead agency for investigations, and they have been beefed up. A good deal is happening and, of course, the SFO has undergone something of a transformation and is proceeding very strongly with a range of prosecutions. We think that we are doing a good deal to help with fraud.

I call Richard Ottaway. He is not here.

I hear what my hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor-General says, and may I commend the SFO for its initiative in meeting Members of Parliament to talk about scams that have been operating in our constituencies? That is a good way forward and I found the session very instructive. Will she pass back our thanks and encourage the office to do more of that?

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I shall certainly take that message back to Richard Alderman, the director of the SFO, with whom we meet frequently. He seems to have got the Serious Fraud Office into a good and positive place.

I entirely support what Mr. Drew has just said. The initiative is extremely helpful. Welcome progress has been made on fraud, but does the Solicitor-General agree that it is crucial that other parts of the SFO's work do not suffer as a consequence? Will she join me in congratulating the SFO on its success in the Mabey and Johnson corruption case? Can she assure me that the Attorney-General will not put any barriers in the way of the SFO in the BAE Systems corruption case?

Once again, I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's praise of the SFO. It is indeed to be congratulated on the Mabey and Johnson case, which involved a series of offences of overseas corruption and the breaching of UN sanctions in connection with the oil-for-food programme. That company has now been ordered to pay almost £7 million. The SFO is clearly determined to continue its investigation of BAE. The papers have not arrived at the Attorney-General's office and so I cannot make any further comment about that.

Has the Solicitor-General read the Conservative party manifesto and its comments about poverty, the health service, higher education-

Order. I fear that there is no way that the hon. Gentleman, notwithstanding his ingenuity, can get that question in order.

Does the Solicitor-General agree that there seems to be a huge range of Government agencies and prosecuting authorities that deal with the wider subject of economic crime? Is she satisfied that that is an efficient and effective way of dealing with the matter? If she is, will she tell me why?

I am not sure what broad range the hon. Gentleman means. Obviously, there are departmental prosecutors-the Department of Work and Pensions and so on prosecute their own cases. However, there is a body called the Whitehall prosecutors' group, who get together under the general superintendence of the Attorney-General and myself and exchange best practice. We hope that we have brought in a good deal more coherence, even though the special understanding of particular kinds of fraud that are endemic in particular Departments' fields needs to be preserved. I think that the hon. and learned Gentleman is aware that the Crown Prosecution Service and HM Revenue and Customs prosecution offices have recently merged. That has been a very successful exercise so far. At least I can give two examples that should reassure him that we are doing all we can to co-ordinate and make stronger our assault on financial crime.