Mr. John McKeon:

We agree that "suspected fraud" is a better description. As I said, that is the language we have started using in the Department. It has not gotten through to all sections. The fraud and error reports are technical statistical reports, and use language which has been in use for a long time and which is of an international standard, not just for the UK but other administrations, which enables comparisons and so on to be done. Through definitions and statistics there is always metadata. Defining something in a particular way is helpful.

Deputy Connolly spoke about the free market and the idea of something being free being a misnomer. In this case, she is absolutely right. Fraud is not an accurate term to use to describe what we are reporting because there has been no finding of fraud in a court of justice. Nevertheless, it is suspected fraud and in future we will take account of the observations and make sure that we align our language correctly. The figures will not change, but the title may well change.