Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of cuts to Overseas Development Assistance on the budget of the National Crime Agency's International Corruption Unit.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
A thorough assessment was carried out in both financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22, of the potential impact of ODA budget reduction on the National Crime Agency's International Corruption Unit (ICU), and before any budget decision was made. Because of the importance of the ICU's work, FCDO decided to prioritise the ICU budget as far as possible, when deciding where to make required cuts to ODA.
In 2020/21, the annual ICU budget was increased from £4.7m to £5.7million. In 2021/22, the budget was reduced by approximately 10% to £5.02 million. This was based on an assessment that the ICU would be able to manage this cut through not expanding into new areas, whilst preserving existing work and staffing. This remains above the pre-pandemic 2019/20 ODA budget of £4.7 million. The impact of the small budget reduction is regularly monitored by the Department.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) annual budget and (b) number of staff was for HMRC's Proceeds of Crime Unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC is determined that tax fraud should not pay. Since the launch of our Fraud Investigation Service in 2015-16, we have secured and protected nearly £30 billion for our vital public services and secured more than 3,800 criminal convictions. In addition, HMRC’s Spending Review settlement includes £100 million for more resources for HMRC to tackle all forms of non-compliance, including avoidance and evasion, and continued funding of over £70 million for the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to combat fraud and abuse of the Covid-19 schemes.
The tables below detail the full-time equivalent staffing levels in both Fraud Investigation Service (1) and the Proceeds of Crime unit (2).
1. HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service | |||||||||||||
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 * | ||||||||
a) Annual Budget (approx.)- includes Pay-bill, Other Resource Costs, Income & Capital. | £240m | £260m | £300m | £300m | £300m | ||||||||
b) Full-time equivalent staff at the end of the year (approx.) | 4,100 | 4,400 | 4,900 | 4,400 | 4,900 | ||||||||
*2021-22 staff number is a year-end projection | |||||||||||||
2. HMRC's Proceeds of Crime Unit (HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service hosts this function) | ||||||
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 * | |
b) Full-time equivalent staff at the end of the year (approx.) | 400 | 350 | 400 | 350 | 400 | |
*2021-22 staff number is a year-end projection | ||||||
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) annual budget and (b) number of staff was for HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC is determined that tax fraud should not pay. Since the launch of our Fraud Investigation Service in 2015-16, we have secured and protected nearly £30 billion for our vital public services and secured more than 3,800 criminal convictions. In addition, HMRC’s Spending Review settlement includes £100 million for more resources for HMRC to tackle all forms of non-compliance, including avoidance and evasion, and continued funding of over £70 million for the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to combat fraud and abuse of the Covid-19 schemes.
The tables below detail the full-time equivalent staffing levels in both Fraud Investigation Service (1) and the Proceeds of Crime unit (2).
1. HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service | |||||||||||||
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 * | ||||||||
a) Annual Budget (approx.)- includes Pay-bill, Other Resource Costs, Income & Capital. | £240m | £260m | £300m | £300m | £300m | ||||||||
b) Full-time equivalent staff at the end of the year (approx.) | 4,100 | 4,400 | 4,900 | 4,400 | 4,900 | ||||||||
*2021-22 staff number is a year-end projection | |||||||||||||
2. HMRC's Proceeds of Crime Unit (HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service hosts this function) | ||||||
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 * | |
b) Full-time equivalent staff at the end of the year (approx.) | 400 | 350 | 400 | 350 | 400 | |
*2021-22 staff number is a year-end projection | ||||||
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff there were in the National Crime Agency's Financial Intelligence Unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Budget: The UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) is part of the NCA called the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC). Overall annual expenditure for the NECC is available in the NCA’s Annual Reports for the past three years (since it has been formed).
2018/19 - Gross expenditure for the Prosperity Command - £22.0m (Note the NECC was formally launched on 31 October 2018, before which the NCA’s Prosperity Command fulfilled some of the same functions. In the 2019/20 Annual Report, an apportionment of £6.7m in 2018/19 was made for the NECC.)
2019/20 - Gross expenditure for the NECC - £30.0m
2020/21 – Gross expenditure for the NECC - £35.5m
Number of UKFIU staff:
The most recent information on the number of staff within the UKFIU can be found in the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress available here: Economic crime plan 2019 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budget was for the National Crime Agency's Financial Intelligence Unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Budget: The UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) is part of the NCA called the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC). Overall annual expenditure for the NECC is available in the NCA’s Annual Reports for the past three years (since it has been formed).
2018/19 - Gross expenditure for the Prosperity Command - £22.0m (Note the NECC was formally launched on 31 October 2018, before which the NCA’s Prosperity Command fulfilled some of the same functions. In the 2019/20 Annual Report, an apportionment of £6.7m in 2018/19 was made for the NECC.)
2019/20 - Gross expenditure for the NECC - £30.0m
2020/21 – Gross expenditure for the NECC - £35.5m
Number of UKFIU staff:
The most recent information on the number of staff within the UKFIU can be found in the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress available here: Economic crime plan 2019 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff there were in the National Crime Agency's Civil Recovery Team in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The NCA deals with a number of civil recovery investigations utilising staff from a range of departments including investigations, legal and intelligence.
For this reason, the budget is not specifically determinable in relation to solely civil recovery work. How many staff deal with civil recovery at any one time is, of course, not constant and is tailored to those opportunities as they are tasked.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budget was for the National Crime Agency's Civil Recovery Team in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The NCA deals with a number of civil recovery investigations utilising staff from a range of departments including investigations, legal and intelligence.
For this reason, the budget is not specifically determinable in relation to solely civil recovery work. How many staff deal with civil recovery at any one time is, of course, not constant and is tailored to those opportunities as they are tasked.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) investigations, (b) arrests, (c) disruptions, (d) prosecutions and (e) convictions have been undertaken by the National Crime Agency in relation to money laundering and other economic crime in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the National Crime Agency’s investigative activity over the past five years, is contained in the Agency's statutory Annual Reports for the years in question. These are available at www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how data on urinary tract infection instance in clinical settings is being collated at a national level, following the suspension of the National Safety Thermometer and the move to data collection at Trust level.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS England requires English hospital providers through the National Health Service Standard Contract to submit data detailing hospital activity relating to NHS-provided or NHS funded care. This data is collated and published by NHS Digital. It includes hospital admissions where the patient was diagnosed with urinary tract infection. This can be found in the annual Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity
Separately, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency undertakes surveillance of bloodstream infections in hospital and community settings, including information on the infection source through NHS acute trusts reporting infection cases.
NHS safety thermometer data collection was stopped in March 2020 due to emerging evidence that the data collected was incomplete and not being used as intended to support safety improvement and in part to support the COVID-19 response by freeing up nursing time.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data on urinary tract infection instance in clinical settings is being centrally collated by (a) NHS England, (b) his Department and (c) the UK Health Security Agency, given that this data is now primarily gathered at a local level.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS England requires English hospital providers through the National Health Service Standard Contract to submit data detailing hospital activity relating to NHS-provided or NHS funded care. This data is collated and published by NHS Digital. It includes hospital admissions where the patient was diagnosed with urinary tract infection. This can be found in the annual Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity
Separately, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency undertakes surveillance of bloodstream infections in hospital and community settings, including information on the infection source through NHS acute trusts reporting infection cases.
NHS safety thermometer data collection was stopped in March 2020 due to emerging evidence that the data collected was incomplete and not being used as intended to support safety improvement and in part to support the COVID-19 response by freeing up nursing time.