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To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 15 June 2009, Official Report, column 17W, on councillors, how many cases of housing benefit fraud by councillors have been identified as a result of...

Asked by

Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative)

Answering body

Communities and Local Government

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Date

16 December 2009

Reference

502 c1264W; 306831

House

House of Commons

Councillors

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 20 April 2009, Official Report, column 423-4W, on councillors, for what reasons the Audit Commission decided to collect data on all local councillors during its next scheduled exercise; and what assessment the Audit Commission...

Asked by

Robert Neill (Conservative)

Answering body

Communities and Local Government

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Tabled on

10 June 2009

For answer on

12 June 2009

Answered on

15 June 2009

This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission, and I will ask the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.Letter from Steve Bundred, dated 15 June 2009:"Your Parliamentary Question has been passed to me for reply.""Data on local councillors has been collected since 1998. During each cycle of the National Fraud Initiative, local authorities have been required to submit payroll data that includes salaries, wages and members allowances.""Prior to 1998 and based on known frauds reported by audited bodies, pilot exercises were run to determine the value of data matching payroll within NFI. The pilot data was used to provide anomalies to audited bodies and as a result of their investigations they detected significant numbers of payroll and housing benefit frauds by public sector employees and elected members. Consequently payroll became a core element of the data used in NFI. The long standing principle of running pilots to assess the fraud risk in a dataset is enshrined in the Commission's Code of Data Matching Practice laid before Parliament in July 2008.""Individual case studies and the total of frauds detected have been reported in the NFI national reports published at the end of each exercise and many have been covered by local and national media particularly where custodial sentences have resulted. Many local authorities have rightly adopted a zero tolerance approach to fraud and it is important that this is as robust with staff and elected members as it is with members of the public.""A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard."

Date

15 June 2009

Reference

494 c17W; 280013

House

House of Commons

Councillors

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 17 March 2009, Official Report, column 1101W, on councillors: Arun, whether the Audit Commission plans to require local authorities to disclose the bank account details of councillors held...

Asked by

Caroline Spelman (Conservative)

Answering body

Communities and Local Government

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Date

6 May 2009

Reference

492 c231-2W; 273473

House

House of Commons

Councillors

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 19 January 2009, Official Report, columns 1072-3W, on councillors: Arun, whether the Audit Commission plans to obtain bank account information from councillors in other local authorities...

Asked by

Caroline Spelman (Conservative)

Answering body

Communities and Local Government

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Date

20 April 2009

Reference

491 c423-4W; 268732

House

House of Commons

Councillors: Arun

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 19 January 2009, Official Report, columns 1072-3W, on councillors: Arun, whether the Audit Commission plans to conduct similar exercises in other local authorities in the next...

Asked by

Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative)

Answering body

Communities and Local Government

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Date

17 March 2009

Reference

489 c1101W;489 c1103W; 263828

House

House of Commons

Councillors: Arun

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 19 January 2009, Official Report, column 1072W, on councillors: Arun, what the Audit Commission's basis was for the use of its statutory powers to obtain the...

Asked by

Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative)

Answering body

Communities and Local Government

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Tabled on

9 March 2009

For answer on

11 March 2009

Answered on

17 March 2009

Date

17 March 2009

Reference

489 c1100-1W;489 c1102-3W; 263050

House

House of Commons

Councillors: Arun

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what reasons the Audit Commission has requested councillors of Arun Council to provide details of their personal bank accounts.

Asked by

Robert Neill (Conservative)

Answering body

Communities and Local Government

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Tabled on

18 December 2008

For answer on

12 January 2009

Answered on

19 January 2009

This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission and I have asked the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.Letter from Steve Bundred, dated January 2009:"Your Parliamentary Question on what reasons the Audit Commission has requested councillors of Arun Council to provide details of their personal bank accounts has been passed to me for reply.""This matter relates to the data collected for the Audit Commission's data matching exercise, known as the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). The NFI is designed to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud and is one of the ways in which the Audit Commission meets its responsibility of promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public money. We estimate that since it started in 1996 the NFI has helped to detect around £450 million in fraud and overpayments.""The processing of data by the Commission in a data matching exercise is now carried out under powers in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998, which were enacted in the Serious Crime Act 2007. The Audit Commission does not itself investigate instances of fraud; this is the responsibility of the bodies participating in the NFI and supplying data sets for matching.""Mandatory participants such as local councils, police authorities, probation boards, fire and rescue authorities and NHS bodies are required to submit a number of different dataset types for NFI. One of these datasets is payroll data, that is, all individuals currently being paid a salary/wage/members allowance on a payroll at a particular point in time.""The data sought is limited strictly to those fields that are required for data matching plus any that will assist the investigator in selecting matches where an inconsistency is indicated from the data match that requires further investigation. The fields are set out in a 'data specification'. The bank account and sort code are included on the payroll data specification; however the name in which the bank account is held is not collected so the Audit Commission cannot make a connection to other account holders.""Bank details (bank account number and sort code) are important for the investigation process, but they are not displayed in the reports that NFI participants receive; instead the matching process looks at whether the bank account number and sort code is the ""same or different across the sets of data provided for NFI and then converts this information into a flag (Yes or No). It is then the flag that is included in the NFI reports. This intelligence helps investigators prioritise investigative resources on cases where employment income has, for example, potentially been withheld (e.g. in an undeclared bank account). This data is highly significant in the fight against fraud.""The Audit Commission's Head of NFI has met elected members at Arun Council to explain why these fields are collected, referring to a number of case studies that not only involve public sector employees but also elected members who have been guilty of benefit fraud by not declaring allowances.""A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard."

Date

19 January 2009

Reference

486 c1072-3W; 246374

House

House of Commons

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