Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many midlife MOTs have been completed between 1 January and 7 November 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since the launch of the Midlife MOT in 2019, we have reached people through multiple channels to help them take stock of their finances, skills and health, and plan for their later life.
The Midlife MOT within Jobcentres was rolled out from the end of January 2023. Up until 30th September 2023, around 5,300 Universal Credit claimants aged 50 or over have attended a Midlife MOT within Jobcentres. Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution. Data up to 30th September is the latest data available.
The Private Sector Midlife MOT pilots were introduced by three providers, across three geographical locations, in May 2023. Quality assured data on the number of people who have attended a Private Sector Midlife MOT is not available.
An enhanced digital Midlife MOT offer went live on 5th July 2023. The website is open to all, and between 5th July and 7th November 2023, there were around 15,000 sessions consisting of 10,200 unique users who had accessed the new site. Please note, these figures only include users who accepted website analytics tracking.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland on fraudulent or incorrect payments paid out by public bodies in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government does not hold this information and is a matter for the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
However, we are committed to combatting fraud through prevention, detection and taking action against those who commit it.
The Cabinet Office worked with HM Treasury to launch the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in August 2022. The PSFA is the government’s centre of expertise and works with ministerial departments and public bodies to understand and reduce the impact of public sector fraud. The PSFA provides counter fraud data analytics capability through the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) to public bodies including those in Northern Ireland. Between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2022, the NFI achieved £4.4 million of counter fraud savings through the prevention or recovery of fraud in Northern Ireland.
The Rt Hon. Jeremy Quin MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and HM Paymaster General, has not had any meetings on the subject of fraudulent or incorrect payments paid out by public bodies with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the differences in (1) the remit, and (2) the membership, of NHS England’s Advisory Group on Data and the Department of Health and Social Care's National Data Advisory Group.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Advisory Group for Data (AGD) is convened by NHS England and builds on the previous work by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD). Currently operating in interim form, it includes the members of IGARD, alongside a representative of the Caldicott Guardian of NHS England, the Data Protection Officer, and senior staff supporting on Data and Analytics.
It provides NHS England with access to expert advice and assurance on internal and external access to data in relation to the exercise of NHS England’s functions transferred to it from NHS Digital, including on specific requests for the dissemination of information in accordance with the statutory guidance issued by my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Its minutes are published on the NHS England website.
The National Data Advisory Group (NDAG) is convened by the Department to provide strategic policy advice on data and data sharing, including the implementation of Data Saves Lives, the data strategy. It does not advise on specific data sharing requests and has a different membership to the ADG. NDAG includes, among others, the National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care, the Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Chief Executive of the Patient’s Association.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) algorithmic and (b) other automated decision making systems her Department uses; and for what purposes.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is using algorithms for land use mapping at a national scale which include:
To some extent automated processes are used to complete transactions. But decisions are still governed by the policy lead, budget holder (or other) approvals. There is no independent, algorithmic logic making choices without human approval. Predictive analytics is only used at aggregate level. Individuals are not profiled.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Figure 7 on page 297 of his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, if he will provide further details on what is being provided through funding for extra resource for Counter Fraud and Compliance over the Spending Review period.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We continue to use additional investment to build on our existing fraud and error work, as set out in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts, DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This includes enhancing our counter-fraud resources and investing in the use of data and analytics to identify potential fraud and error.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of access by disabled people to cancer screening; and what information his Department holds on such access.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to improving the accessibility of the breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes. Providers of NHS screening services are required to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that their services are accessible to disabled people.
The Department and NHS England are working to set out actions to improve accessibility to and uptake of screening including ensuring that Primary Care Networks are provided with primary care data analytics for population segmentation and risk stratification to allow them to understand in depth their populations’ health and care needs for screening programmes. NHS England is supporting a range of research and evaluation to assess the feasibility and acceptability of self-sampling within the NHS Cervical Screening Programme to support an improvement in the accessibility of cervical screening.
The breast screening service offers longer appointments at accessible sites to support women with physical disabilities to have a successful screen. Services make reasonable adjustments, within the constraints of equipment, to ensure that disabled people are offered the opportunity to have breast screening.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of benefits that were fraudulently claimed in each of the last ten financial years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) estimates on the value of both fraud and error in the benefit system, can be found in our annually published statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. Reports for each of the last ten financial years can be found at:
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This year’s figures show that the work we have been undertaking to reduce Fraud and Error is having an impact, with the headline rate of overpayment having decreased by 0.4% from 4.0% to 3.6%.
Our Fraud Plan, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022, sets out our approach and explains how additional investment is allowing us to recruit 1,400 more staff into our counter-fraud teams and develop enhanced data analytics as a means of preventing and detecting fraud and error.
Additionally, we are creating a dedicated team to deliver Targeted Case Reviews of existing Universal Credit claims. This supports wider Government aims of strong oversight and control and efficiently managing the public purse. Over the next five years we expect to review millions of potentially high-risk claims, including suspicious cases which entered our system at the height of the pandemic.
More information on our Fraud Plan, which also explains our ambition to modernise and strengthen our legislative framework, can be found here:
Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) reduce fraud within the benefits system.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) estimates on the value of both fraud and error in the benefit system, can be found in our annually published statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. Reports for each of the last ten financial years can be found at:
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This year’s figures show that the work we have been undertaking to reduce Fraud and Error is having an impact, with the headline rate of overpayment having decreased by 0.4% from 4.0% to 3.6%.
Our Fraud Plan, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022, sets out our approach and explains how additional investment is allowing us to recruit 1,400 more staff into our counter-fraud teams and develop enhanced data analytics as a means of preventing and detecting fraud and error.
Additionally, we are creating a dedicated team to deliver Targeted Case Reviews of existing Universal Credit claims. This supports wider Government aims of strong oversight and control and efficiently managing the public purse. Over the next five years we expect to review millions of potentially high-risk claims, including suspicious cases which entered our system at the height of the pandemic.
More information on our Fraud Plan, which also explains our ambition to modernise and strengthen our legislative framework, can be found here:
Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of Exchequer, with reference to the National Semiconductor Strategy, published 19 May 2023, whether it is his policy to fully restore R&D tax credits that were reduced to incentivise research and development.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Semiconductors are an essential component for the functioning of almost every electronic device we use, as well as underpinning future technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum and 6G. To support this vitally important sector, the Semiconductor Strategy set out how £1 billion of Government investment over the next decade will improve access to infrastructure, power more research and development and facilitate greater international cooperation.
As part of the ongoing research and development (R&D) tax reliefs review, the Government announced at Autumn Statement 2022 that the R&D tax reliefs would be reformed to ensure taxpayer’s money is spent as effectively as possible, whilst leaving the level of R&D related business investment in the economy unchanged.
The SME scheme cost twice as much as the Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC), and its cash value to firm was three times that of RDEC - yet it incentivised as little as 60p of additional R&D for each £1 spent, compared to as much as £2.70 additional R&D per £1 of RDEC. Following the corporation tax rise from April 2023, the SME scheme would have become even more generous in cash terms, and RDEC less.
The Chancellor committed to considering the case for further support for R&D intensive SMEs, and at Spring Budget announced a new permanent rate of relief for the most R&D intensive loss-making SMEs. This is worth around £500 million a year and will benefit around 20,000 SMEs a year by 2027-2028.
To support modern methods of innovation, the Government is expanding the scope of qualifying expenditure for R&D tax reliefs to include data, cloud computing and pure mathematics costs. This means that businesses will be able to claim more R&D tax relief for cutting-edge R&D methods such as genome sequencing, machine learning, and data analytics.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to publish details of the (a) nature and (b) operation of the machine learning algorithms used in trials to detect fraud in claims for Universal Credit advances.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The DWP’s Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service uses data and analytics to identify claims that may warrant closer inspection (or may need additional consideration), assisting in the prevention and detection of fraud and error. It is right that we keep up with fraud in today’s digital age, so that we can prevent, detect and deter those who would try to exploit the benefit system and more importantly, improve our support for genuine claimants.
However, we currently have no plans to publish details of either the (a) nature or (b) operation of the machine learning algorithms used in trials to detect fraud in claims for Universal Credit advances. Similarly, we also have no plans to publish the results of trials using machine learning algorithms to detect fraud in claims for Universal Credit advances. It is not in the public interest to publish, as it contains information that fraudulent actors could use to defraud the benefit system and impact the public purse adversely.
We have conducted an equalities assessment of trials using machine learning algorithms to detect fraud in claims for Universal Credit advances.
The department has robust processes to ensure ethical use and impact of data is considered, which includes Equality Impact Assessments for large-scale transformative initiatives that involve personal data, aligned with data-ethics frameworks, codes of practice, and working principles for analytical communities within the department that work with personal data.
The DWP’s Personal Information Charter (PIC) ensures that its customers are aware of the DWP’s use of Artificial Intelligence.
Importantly, it should be noted that we do not use algorithms to make decisions regarding fraudulent claims. These are always made by humans.
The Information Commissioner’s Office have indicated publicly that they are broadly supportive of the current use of AI within the welfare benefit system, based on sampling they have undertaken.