What steps she plans to take to protect small and medium-sized businesses from fraudulent financial schemes.

Through the national fraud strategy, the Government are implementing an integrated programme to make the UK a more hostile place for fraudsters. We are making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to report fraud, with the national fraud reporting centre going live, by phone and on the web, on 26 October. Importantly, we also have some guidance specifically tailored to help businesses protect themselves better from fraud. In addition, a more integrated law-enforcement response is being provided by the City of London police which, as I have said already, is the lead force in the country on fraud.

I am grateful for that reply, but is the Solicitor-General aware that there has been a very big increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses falling prey to overseas internet money transfer scams? Typically, such scams involve the proposed transfer of large sums of money in return for bank details. She may say that firms are gullible for falling prey to such schemes, but does she agree that more should be done, perhaps through work with internet service providers?

I am sure that that is a real possibility. The Serious Fraud Office has an online list of the current scams that it is aware of, and the intention is to alert people to falsities such as the hon. Gentleman has described. However, it is not only small businesses that are offered large amounts of money in return for their bank details: I get quite a lot of those offers myself, and I presume that other Members of Parliament do too. Happily, though, I have never yet fallen for any of them.

Recent figures show that 72 per cent. of small businesses think that they are more at risk of fraud as a result of the recession, but that only 22 per cent. are taking further steps to protect their interests. The figures also show that 26 per cent. of small businesses do not check bank and credit card statements regularly, and that 28 per cent. of them do not reconcile purchase orders against goods supplied. There is clearly a lot of work that business itself should be doing, but we stand ready to help in every way that we can.