Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has (a) spent on and (b) reduced its expenditure due to the expansion of targeted case reviews.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Targeted Case Review (TCR) is currently scaling at pace to strengthen the department’s response to fraud and error within Universal Credit.
We are investing £443 million to save £6.6 billion by March 2028.
Investment in TCR for 2022-23 was £19.6 million. As set out in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) 2022-23, TCR delivered DWP £39 million of savings, of which £14 million related to 2022-23 expenditure.
We expect the majority of savings to occur in the final years of the project when Targeted Case Review is fully operational.
The Annual Report and Accounts for the financial year 23/24 is expected to be published Summer 2024. This will include Targeted Case Review spend and expenditure. The Fraud and Error National Statistics will be published on 16 May 2024.
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, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of error in the last three financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling both fraud and error. DWPs quality assurance framework plays an important role in identifying common errors which contribute to over and underpayments. In addition, the department and HMRC has committed to provide assurance this winter over the integrity of the National Insurance records and how they interact with DWP’s benefit system.
The Department launched a robust plan to drive down fraud and error from the benefits system, alongside investment of £900 million that will deliver £2.4 billion of savings by the end of 2024/25. This plan includes proposed powers to require the transfer of data from third-parties, which has been introduced as part of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (No.2). This legislation is forecast to save up to an additional £600m over the Treasury scorecard period.
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, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling fraud which is why in May 2022 the Department launched a robust plan to drive down fraud and error from the benefits system, alongside investment of £900 million that will deliver £2.4 billion of savings by the end of 2024/25. This plan includes proposed powers to require the transfer of data from third-parties, which has been introduced as part of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (No.2). This legislation is forecast to save up to an additional £600m over the Treasury scorecard period. The Department has set out a target to deliver £1.3bn in savings from our dedicated counter-fraud and error resource in 2023/24 as set out in the department’s Annual Reports and Accounts.
Asked by: Lord Cruddas (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 19 February (HL2185), what steps they are taking to ensure financial literacy education is actually reaching the most disadvantaged students.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is crucial that all pupils are equipped with the knowledge and tools to manage their finances well in later life. That is why financial education is embedded in the national curriculum for mathematics at key stages 1 to 4, and in citizenship at key stages 3 and 4.
The national curriculum is compulsory for maintained schools, but all schools are measured by Ofsted on having a broad and balanced curriculum which is comparable to the national curriculum. As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools can choose how to teach financial education and they can tailor what they teach to make sure all pupils are taught what they need to know.
The Levelling Up White Paper identified 55 Education Investment Areas where the department will implement a package of measures to drive school improvement and accelerate progress towards the department’s 2030 ambition that 90% of pupils meet the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of primary school and that the average mathematics and English GCSE grade increases to a 5.
There is a range of financial education support for schools. For example, Oak National Academy, an Arm’s Length Body, has published its initial mathematics resources, with the full curriculum available by this autumn. As part of this, Oak is exploring including additional lessons in real life mathematics. Secondary citizenship resources will become available from autumn 2024 and will be complete by autumn 2025. The Money and Pensions Service has published guidance for schools and there is specialist support for fraud and tax education from the Home Office and HMRC respectively.
The department also works closely with the Money and Pensions Service which exists to help people make the most of their money and pensions, particularly those most in need and those most vulnerable to financial insecurity. The Money and Pensions Service has invested £1.1 million in financial education programmes to support children and young people in vulnerable circumstances and has published guidance to help children and young people's services to embed financial wellbeing into the services they offer.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has had discussions with the UK Vaping Industry Association on its proposals for a vape retail licence.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not had any discussions with the UK Vaping Industry Association on its proposals for a vape retail license, though we have received written representations on this issue. There are no current plans to introduce a licensing scheme. However, the Government recognises that strong enforcement is needed to tackle underage and illicit vape sales. The new Tobacco and Vapes Bill includes provisions to issue fixed penalty notices for underage tobacco and vape sales. This will complement existing powers that local authorities have to enforce age of sale legislation including fines of up to £2,500, and for the most serious offences, court orders to prevent the offending retailer from opening for a period.
In addition, we have committed to increasing investment for our enforcement agencies by £30 million per year, and at Spring Budget the Chancellor announced that the Government will introduce a new duty on vaping products, giving HM Revenue and Customs further powers to minimise fraud, introduce civil and criminal powers to seize illicit products and equipment, and issue penalties.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken to tackle (a) online scams and (b) other cyber crime.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Fraud is designated a priority offence under the Online Safety Act (OSA), meaning companies will be held to account if they fail to remove illegal content on their platforms. This is expected to have a strong impact on some of the highest harm fraud types, such as online purchase, investment and romance scams, as well as key fraud enablers such as the recruitment and use of money mules.
However, the OSA will take time to come into force. Therefore, the Government has also created the Online Fraud Charter: a voluntary agreement bringing together the largest companies in the tech sector, who have committed to a series of actions aimed at reducing fraud on their platforms and services. The Charter was signed on 30 November, and will deliver a much quicker and more targeted response than regulation: Online Fraud Charter - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s National Cyber Strategy 2022-25, which is supported by £2.6 billion of investment through the National Cyber Fund.
As part of the Criminal Justice Bill, we are also introducing a new power for law enforcement and other investigative agencies to act to suspend IP addresses and domain names where they are being used for a criminal activity with a link to the UK.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by his Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is proud of its record in proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system. As part of wider cross-government counter fraud investment, the government established the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In its first year, the PSFA delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.
The PSFA produces a Fraud Landscape Report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-government-fraud-landscape-annual-report-2022). This provides data on fraud and error detection, loss and recoveries in central government, outside of the tax and welfare system and includes the Cabinet Office. The 2020/21 Report was published in March 2023. To note it outlines all figures rounded to the nearest £0.1m.
In 2022-23, as published in the department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, the Cabinet Office detected error of £3.48m, of which £3.43m was recovered in year and detected fraud of £60k of which none has been recovered to date. Efforts to recover the detected fraud are continuing at this time. The Cabinet Office does not hold specific data on fraud for previous years.
The Cabinet Office does not recognise a loss arising from error or fraud until efforts to recover the funds have been explored. This means that write-offs of error and fraud usually occur in the years after the original problem arose.
Losses recognised and written off by the Cabinet Office for the last three years are:
2022/23 - £4,800
2021/22 - £327,400
2020/21 - £703,300
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours of compulsory corruption prevention training are undertaken by new prison officers during their basic training.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All newly recruited prison officers receive a total of 8 hours of counter corruption training during their initial foundation training.
All HMPPS staff have access to an online e-learning platform called MyLearning. This platform enables staff to continue their professional development journey and offers additional learning which includes Basic Security Awareness and Counter Fraud, Bribery & Corruption. The Civil Service Expectations training package is also included on this platform which covers corruption, and is required learning for all HMPPS employees.
HMPPS have introduced a security investment programme that supports and strengthens staff resilience to corruption and provides ongoing awareness training for all staff
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle fraud-related crime in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
In May 2023, the Government published the Fraud Strategy which set out a national response to combat the threat. Fraud has since reduced 13% compared to last year (Sept 2022), including a 10% decrease in London. The rate has continued to decrease since the Fraud Strategy was launched in May 2023.
Through the new Online Safety Act and the Online Fraud Charter the Government is working to prevent the British public encountering fraud at source. The Fraud Strategy also committed £100m of investment in law enforcement, and created a new National Fraud Squad, to increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters. Furthermore, fraud will be made a priority for local police forces through the Strategic Policing Requirement.
We also launched the new national anti-fraud behaviour change campaign launched on 12th February, which will help people spot and take action to avoid fraud.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to improve investigations into benefit fraud.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In May 2022 the Department for Work and Pensions launched a robust plan to drive down fraud and error from the benefits system.
The “Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System” plan sits alongside additional investment of £900 million that will deliver £2.4 billion of savings by the end of 24/25.