Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the (a) Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service, (b) Enhanced Checking Service, (c) Risk Review Team, (d) Enhanced Review Teams, (e) Universal Credit advances claims decision risk model, (f) Common Risk Engine, (g) General Matching Service, (h) Fraud Referral and Intervention Management System, (i) Targeted Case Review and (j) any other systems rely on artificial intelligence, machine learning or algorithmic processes for fraud detection.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As set out in the Department’s 2022/23 Annual Report and Accounts (page 308 to 310), DWP uses advanced analytics to tackle fraud and error. These analytics include a variety of sophisticated techniques including the use of machine learning to identify patterns in claims that could suggest fraud or error, so that these claims can be reviewed by relevant DWP teams such as the Enhanced Review Team. The final decision on benefit entitlement is made by a human caseworker.
The National Audit Office confirm that DWP have governance and processes in place to monitor the bias of these models.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any of the claim detection criteria in the targeted case review system are applied by or operated through artificial intelligence, machine learning or algorithmic processes.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As set out in the Department’s 2022/23 Annual Report and Accounts (page 308 to 310), DWP uses a range of advanced analytics to identify patterns in claims that could suggest fraud or error, so that these claims can be reviewed by relevant DWP teams including Targeted Case Review agents. The final decision on benefit entitlement is made by a human caseworker.
The National Audit Office confirm that DWP have governance and processes in place to monitor the bias of these models.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Q27 of the oral evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee on 10 January 2024, HC 417, what biases there are in the (a) AI and (b) machine learning systems used by his Department to detect and prevent fraud in the benefit system; and how these biases have been used to identify fraud.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please be assured that assessments of bias have been conducted for all IRIS machine learning models and the screening to date has not identified any areas of concern. The outcomes will be published in summer 2024 within DWP’s Annual Report and Accounts.
The department always ensures appropriate safeguards are in place. There are detailed Data Protection Impact Assessments and Equality Analysis that accompany our machine learning models, and these are live documents that are kept updated. We also work closely with legal colleagues to ensure our use of machine learning is legal and proportionate. As an additional safeguard, all decisions on claims are made by DWP case workers based on all the facts and individual circumstances of the claim.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential for bias in the automated machine learning and decision-making systems used to audit.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please be assured that assessments of bias have been conducted for all IRIS machine learning models and the screening to date has not identified any areas of concern. The outcomes will be published in summer 2024 within DWP’s Annual Report and Accounts.
The department always ensures appropriate safeguards are in place. There are detailed Data Protection Impact Assessments and Equality Analysis that accompany our machine learning models, and these are live documents that are kept updated. We also work closely with legal colleagues to ensure our use of machine learning is legal and proportionate. As an additional safeguard, all decisions on claims are made by DWP case workers based on all the facts and individual circumstances of the claim.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the (a) Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service, (b) Enhanced Checking Service, (c) Risk Review Team, (d) Enhanced Review Teams, (e) Universal Credit advances claims decision risk model, (f) Common Risk Engine, (g) General Matching Service, (h) Fraud Referral and Intervention Management System (i) Targeted Case Review and (j) any other systems have been used as part of fraud surveillance in the benefits system in the last year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
None of the teams or systems referenced carry out surveillance in the benefits system.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of claimants referred by a DWP algorithm for case review as potentially containing fraud or error were (a) in receipt of disability benefit and (b) registered as disabled; and of these claims how many experienced benefits (i) stoppages and (ii) suspensions in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of cases in the targeted case review system were (a) discontinued and (b) endorsed on the grounds that they were likely to contain (i) fraud and (ii) error after being checked by a human reviewer in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The TCR process is led by specialised agents to find incorrectness on claims and put it right. Prior to starting a claim review, agents will preview the claim to make sure it meets the criteria for selection. Claims selected for review are not endorsed on the grounds they are likely to contain fraud or error. It is only once a claim review is complete that an agent can determine the outcome. Performance for the financial year 22/23 is included in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) Report, available on GOV.UK. The ARA report for financial year 23/24 is expected to be published Summer 2024.
We do not categorise claims as discontinued. A claim may be deselected for review if it does not meet the criteria.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many inspections have the Health and Safety Executive conducted by sector in each year since 2008.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the number of inspections, by year and by sector, carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for each financial year since 2017. HSE’s data deletion policy only allows for retention of detailed inspection data for up to 7 years, therefore data before 2017 can be found on Gov.uk website.
The figures below are based on raw live data and can be subject to change due to updates to historical cases. Therefore these figures may differ to the figures published in the Annual Reports.
‘Sector’ as used in this table is a term used by HSE internally and is a categorisation of the main economic activity of a workplace. The figures below include inspections to major hazard sites. A breakdown by sector is not always published in the Annual Reports as the focus will be on the respective priorities of business plan for that work year.
Year Inspected | ||||||
Sector | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Agriculture | 574 | 773 | 708 | 229 | 405 | 868 |
Construction | 7,872 | 7,472 | 5,004 | 4,582 | 6,134 | 6,146 |
Extractive Utilities | 135 | 42 | 40 | 148 | 44 | 86 |
Manufacturing | 6,068 | 5,289 | 4,322 | 6,080 | 5,729 | 5,417 |
Services | 3,304 | 3,195 | 2,291 | 3,717 | 3,426 | 2,959 |
Unknown | 7 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
Water/Waste Management | 1,626 | 1,418 | 1,148 | 2,225 | 1,258 | 1,434 |
Total | 19,586 | 18,194 | 13,514 | 16,985 | 17,000 | 16,912 |
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many internal process reviews her Department has (a) started and (b) completed on incidences of (i) death or (ii) serious harm between July 2022 and June 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Information on how many cases have been accepted to be taken forward for a full Internal Process Review (IPR), and where these were referred either due to customer death or harm, is included within this year’s Annual Report and Accounts, available at:
DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This includes information on cases accepted for an IPR between July 2022 and March 2023. Information in relation to April to June 2023 will be published in next year’s Accounts.
Information on how many IPRs have been completed between July 2022 and June 2023, where these were referred either due to customer death or harm is set out in the table below:
| July 2022 – June 2023 |
Customer Death[1] | 47 |
Customer Harm[2] | 14 |
1 Customer Death includes the categories: death, alleged suicide and confirmed suicide.
2 Customer Harm includes the categories: self-harm, serious harm, attempted suicide and ‘other’.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many internal process reviews his Department (a) started and (b) completed on incidences of (i) death and (ii) serious harm between July 2022 and March 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information requested cannot be shared, as it is intended for publication at a future date within the department’s Annual Report and Accounts.