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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will give the budget for (a) 2000-01 and (b) 2001-02 for (i) the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate, (ii) BASIS, (iii) the Fraud Strategy Directorate and (iv) the Professional Standards Unit. [22899] Malcolm Wicks: We set out our strategy for tackling fraud and error in the paper--A New Contract for Welfare: Safeguarding Social security (CM 4276)-- published on 23 March 1999. The overall aim of the strategy is to have a benefit system which is secure from first claim to final payment. The implementation of this strategy means that an anti-fraud focus is integral to the work of the whole Department, as is dealing with the wider agenda of error and incorrectness in benefit payments. The remit of the four units specified in the question does not therefore represent the full extent of the Department's counter- fraud strategy. The information available is in the table. £ _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 2000-01 2001-02 Benefit Fraud Inspectorate 5,866,200 6,002,928 BASIS 13,200,778 11,205,000 Fraud Strategy Directorate/Unit {1}-- 2,463,209 Professional Standards Unit {1}-- 2,734,000 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Departmental re-organisation means it is not possible to compare directly one year with another nor to accurately break down the costs to allow an equal comparison.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

377 c683W;377 c686W; 22899

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Abuse Executive agencies Fraud Finance Social security benefits Benefit Fraud Inspectorate Benefits Agency Security Investigation Service

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk