Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will bring forward legislative proposals to apply provisions equivalent to those of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 to England.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government currently has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to apply provisions equivalent to those of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 to England.
Last year the Minister for Disabled People published a written statement announcing that DWP would lead a Market Review of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreting provision, which would engage with Deaf people and stakeholder groups to examine opportunities that could strengthen and improve the market in the long term.
The Call for Evidence for this review opened in January 2016 and closed in March 2016. We received hundreds of comprehensive submissions of evidence, which we are currently analysing.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much expenditure was incurred by the Child Support Agency in making ex-gratia or special payments as a result of poor service or errors by that agency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Priti Patel
The information on the total amount paid as ex-gratia or special payments across child maintenance in the last three years is in the attached table.
Financial Year | £'000s |
2013 - 2014 | £1,090 |
2014 - 2015 | £847 |
2015 – 2016 * | £941 |
Notes -
These amounts include payments made across the Child Support Agency and Child Maintenance Service for the following:
Ex-gratia – Actual Financial Loss
Ex-gratia – Consolatory
Compensation for Delay
*The figure for 2015/16 is draft and subject to audit.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 8 March 2016 to Questions 30341 and 30342 and with reference to the Answers of 5 December 2013 to Question 179450 and 21 January 2014 to Question 182897, when his Department (a) decided to stop collecting the required information and (b) began to collect information in such a way that it can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested can only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
For questions 179450 and 182897 volumes of prosecutions and number of errors identified were provided, however these were not all fraud cases, including cases where the error was not deliberate. This did not explicitly answer the enquiry, however was given to provide helpful context. It is not possible to separate cases into those which are a mistake and those where fraud has been accepted without individual case by case analysis.
Again, we cannot directly answer 30341 and 30342 but have provided the below extra information to assist;
| 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
Total Fraud Investigations (1) | 125,140 | 116,480 | 171,730 |
of which total positive outcomes (2) | 20,800 | 20,050 | 24,600 |
of which total fraud cases (3) | 15,350 | 12,870 | 13,600 |
over which total prosecuted (4) | 11,390 | 8,490 | 7,150 |
(1) Total cases investigated by Local Service or complex criminal Investigations. |
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(2) Total cases where an error has been identified and corrected. |
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(3) Prosecutions + admin Penalties + cautions: cases where fraud has been proven or accepted. | |||
(4) Cases accepted by CPS for prosecution. |
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Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a criminal conviction for benefit fraud were given a (a) custodial and (b) non-custodial sentence for that fraud in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested to answer the 3 questions is shown below.
(30342 & 30344)
In response to cases prosecuted in court and the number of people convicted for benefit fraud (a) and (b) the statistics for England and Wales can be found using this link:–
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014
(Select and open “Outcomes by offence tables” under fraud offences you will find:
53.3 Benefit fraud offences - triable either way)
The statistics for Scotland can be found using this link:-
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/02/6001
(Table 4a provides statistics on all convictions broken down by crime type; this includes a specific category for fraud).
(30342) How many cases of benefit fraud were identified in each of the last three years.
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
(30343) Whilst the department does have some information, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received a criminal conviction for defrauding (a) £0 to £1,000, (b) £1,101 to £5,000, (c) £5,001 to £10,000 and (d) over £10,000 in benefits in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested to answer the 3 questions is shown below.
(30342 & 30344)
In response to cases prosecuted in court and the number of people convicted for benefit fraud (a) and (b) the statistics for England and Wales can be found using this link:–
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014
(Select and open “Outcomes by offence tables” under fraud offences you will find:
53.3 Benefit fraud offences - triable either way)
The statistics for Scotland can be found using this link:-
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/02/6001
(Table 4a provides statistics on all convictions broken down by crime type; this includes a specific category for fraud).
(30342) How many cases of benefit fraud were identified in each of the last three years.
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
(30343) Whilst the department does have some information, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of people found to be committing benefit fraud and not prosecuted in court in each of the last two years (a) have repaid monies due in full, (b) are actively making repayments, (c) are in arrears with their repayments and (d) have since been prosecuted for breaching their agreement to pay.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Information in the form requested for questions a, b and c is not readily available and could only be compiled at disproportionate cost.
In answer to question d, the Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases of benefit fraud were identified in each of the last three years; and what proportion of such cases were prosecuted in court.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested to answer the 3 questions is shown below.
(30342 & 30344)
In response to cases prosecuted in court and the number of people convicted for benefit fraud (a) and (b) the statistics for England and Wales can be found using this link:–
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014
(Select and open “Outcomes by offence tables” under fraud offences you will find:
53.3 Benefit fraud offences - triable either way)
The statistics for Scotland can be found using this link:-
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/02/6001
(Table 4a provides statistics on all convictions broken down by crime type; this includes a specific category for fraud).
(30342) How many cases of benefit fraud were identified in each of the last three years.
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
(30343) Whilst the department does have some information, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of disability living allowance claimants have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment to date.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Information on whether claimants of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment is not centrally recorded and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of personal independence payment claimants have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment to date.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Information on whether claimants of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment is not centrally recorded and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.