Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183091 on Children: Maintenance, what the average waiting time is between an application to the court and outcome; and whether his Department has set a target on the proportion of applications that result in an outcome.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service has an expectation of a successful outcome in every case we send to the court.
The average clearance between an application to the court and outcome is 16 weeks.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made a recent impact assessment on the payment of childcare costs through Universal Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many mandatory investigations the Health and Safety Executive ended as a result of inadequate resources in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) selects cases for investigation on the basis of its published incident selection criteria (ISC) – incidents which notionally meet the criteria may not be selected for investigation or, where selected, investigations may conclude early for a number of reasons, including decisions around the most efficient deployment of resources. HSE does not hold specific figures relating to investigations falling within in its ISC which were concluded due to inadequate resources.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the capability of the Health and Safety Executive to investigate incidents that are deemed to meet the conditions for a mandatory investigation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Britain continues to be one of the safest places to work in the world.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carries out planned inspection activity as well as investigating incidents. HSE has discretion as to what incidents it investigates and follows the principles laid out in Sections 6 and 11 in its Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS).
HSE’s published Incident Selection Criteria (ISC) gives guidance on matters that would normally be investigated, however there are a number of reasons why incidents meeting the ISC would not be investigated. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has discretion as to the matters it investigates, as such there are no mandatory investigations.
Where HSE decides not to investigate matters that are within the criteria, due to competing demands for resources, this is because they are deploying resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. Some investigations are unlikely to lead to further action so resource is better spent on proactive inspection work to prevent incidents happening in the first place.
HSE have appropriately trained and experienced inspectors, specialist inspectors and other regulatory staff who can carry out investigations in line with HSE’s policies and procedures, as required.
For 2022 / 2023, provisional figures show that 16,500 proactive inspections were carried out by HSE (against a target of 14,000) and were delivered through a mixture of high-risk programmes and campaigns, assurance and priority local visits. During this same period, 85% of fatal investigations were completed within 12 months of assuming primacy from the police (against a target of 80%) and 95% of non-fatal investigations completed within 12 months of the incident (against a target of 90%). This demonstrates HSE has appropriate measures in place to investigate incidents while also completing proactive inspection activity.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications to cancel passports have been made as a result of non-payment of child maintenance in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a wide range of enforcement powers available to use for those parents who will not engage in a negotiated debt repayment plan for unpaid maintenance. Any enforcement power that would be recommended to the Courts is usually based on the level of debt and consideration of the ability to repay within the time periods set out in our legislation, as well as the most appropriate sanction for the circumstances of the parent.
These powers are intended to be a strong deterrent to encourage parents to meet their obligations.
During the last 12 months CMS has not applied for a passport confiscation on non-paying cases.
Details of enforcement powers used can be found within the Child Maintenance published statistics at tables 7.1 and 7.2 here.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, many fraud investigations conducted by his Department which resulted in the finding of fraud have been overturned at appeal in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In the 2022/23 reporting year it took on average 235 working days for the DWP to complete a benefit fraud investigation.
These investigations vary significantly in their nature and complexity and no set time can be attributed to an individual investigation. Our investigators, working with the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate, seek to expedite all investigations as quickly as possible to ensure the criminal burden of proof is met.
As of the end of March 2023, the DWP had 18,691 open investigations into alleged benefit fraud recorded on its reporting systems. Not all of these will be fraud and it is right we follow the due process.
Outside of that figure there will be a number of ongoing investigations into serious and organised crime where there may be more than one alleged offender or complicit individuals.
Information on successful appeals relating specifically to decisions made as a result of a fraud investigation are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the average amount of time it took his Department to complete a benefit fraud investigation in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In the 2022/23 reporting year it took on average 235 working days for the DWP to complete a benefit fraud investigation.
These investigations vary significantly in their nature and complexity and no set time can be attributed to an individual investigation. Our investigators, working with the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate, seek to expedite all investigations as quickly as possible to ensure the criminal burden of proof is met.
As of the end of March 2023, the DWP had 18,691 open investigations into alleged benefit fraud recorded on its reporting systems. Not all of these will be fraud and it is right we follow the due process.
Outside of that figure there will be a number of ongoing investigations into serious and organised crime where there may be more than one alleged offender or complicit individuals.
Information on successful appeals relating specifically to decisions made as a result of a fraud investigation are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many fraud investigations conducted by his Department are ongoing.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In the 2022/23 reporting year it took on average 235 working days for the DWP to complete a benefit fraud investigation.
These investigations vary significantly in their nature and complexity and no set time can be attributed to an individual investigation. Our investigators, working with the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate, seek to expedite all investigations as quickly as possible to ensure the criminal burden of proof is met.
As of the end of March 2023, the DWP had 18,691 open investigations into alleged benefit fraud recorded on its reporting systems. Not all of these will be fraud and it is right we follow the due process.
Outside of that figure there will be a number of ongoing investigations into serious and organised crime where there may be more than one alleged offender or complicit individuals.
Information on successful appeals relating specifically to decisions made as a result of a fraud investigation are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any paying parents were placed on deduction of earnings orders incorrectly due to backlogs in the Child Maintenance Service linking payments to cases in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Child Maintenance Service apply the Deductions from Earnings Order (DEO) process when a missed payment is identified. There is no data held identifying the number of occasions where an application of a DEO has been made in error due when a Paying Parent has in fact made a payment to the service but that payment has not been identified at the time of placing the DEO.
To encourage contact and dialogue from Paying Parents when a missed payment is identified the Child Maintenance Service attempts to make contact with Paying Parents prior to considering a DEO. These include sending an automated SMS text message and a warning letter highlighting the missed payment to the Paying Parent. The warning letter explains the consequences of non-payment including enforcement action.
If the Paying Parent does not make contact the Child Maintenance Service automatically search for a current employer link via the HM Revenue and Customs database. A call is then made to the employer to confirm the Paying Parent is still employed with them and payroll information is obtained. Once the DEO is issued Child Maintenance Service contact the employer once again to confirm safe receipt and to advise on how to implement the order. Throughout this period the Paying Parent has the opportunity to contact Child Maintenance Service to discuss the missed payment.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2023 to Question 148651 on the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, if he will list the stakeholders that his Department have consulted on those regulations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Officials from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders as part of their day-to-day business, covering many matters on both a formal and informal basis. HSE has good working knowledge to inform any decisions they need to make in relation to their approach with the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. If required, HSE has various established channels of communication with stakeholders to obtain supplementary information.