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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the progress of Operation Gangmaster. [126734] Mr. Pond: Operation Gangmaster began in 1998 and, following disruption caused by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, was re-launched in April 2002. Operation Gangmaster brings together representatives from a range of Government Departments and Agencies and, where appropriate, the police to tackle gangmasters operating illegal practices. This group operates in two ways. The first function is to gather and collate evidence on gangmasters operating in the informal economy. This intelligence enables us to ensure that specialist gangmaster compliance activity is better targeted and more effective. The second function of Operation Gangmaster is to organise specific operations, using appropriate compliance staff drawn from the relevant Departments and Agencies, to tackle particular gangmasters known to be involved in illegal practices. These operations are lead by the Department or Agency that has the major interest in the individual case. Operation Gangmaster does not replace the normal compliance activity taken by each Department or Agency. However, it does provide a co-ordinated approach to tackling gangmasters that may be involved in a range of illegal activity such as breaches of immigration or employment law; tax offences and benefit fraud. Each Department and Agency maintains their own statistics on results of operations. Over the last year Department for Work and Pensions officials have imposed sanctions on 138 people who were involved in benefit fraud, made 18,000 adjustments to benefit entitlements and identified overpayments of benefit in 235 cases.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

126734; 409 c553-4W;409 c554W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Agriculture Casual workers Fraud Disqualification Gangmasters Manual workers Social security benefits Seasonal workers Sanctions Departmental coordination Operation Gangmaster

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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