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17 Jul 2003 : Column 554W—continued
Operation Gangmaster
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.
Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 15 July 2003, ref 124888, if he will list the Government Departments and agencies in the Gangmaster Working Group. [126989]
Mr. Pond: Lord Grabiner recommended that Government Departments should work together in tackling informal economy issues. A Grabiner steering group (now called the Informal Economy Steering Group) was set up to promote Joint Working across Government on informal economy issues. Lower level working groups support the steering group in operational initiatives. One such initiative is Operation Gangmaster, which operates in nine regional forums. The following Departments are directly involved:
The Department for Work and Pensions (lead Department/Agency for Operation Gangmaster and producers of all Operations).
Other Departments involved on an ad hoc basis include the following;
Operational Intelligence Units
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases have been processed through the operational intelligence units in (a) Glasgow and (b) Edinburgh in each month since 1997; how many staff have been employed in their operational intelligence units in (i) Glasgow and (ii) Edinburgh in each month since 1997; and what the planned staffing levels are for each centre. [125480]
Mr. Pond: By the end of 2003–04 it is planned to transfer the work of the Edinburgh unit to the Glasgow site in order to improve co-ordination of the delivery of Operational Intelligence Unit services across Scotland. The Glasgow Operational Intelligence Unit will employ 49 staff.
The information requested on past staffing and work levels is in the table:
(10) The Glasgow Operational Intelligence Unit began operating in July 2001.
(11) The Edinburgh Operational Intelligence Unit began operating in October 2001.
(12) Data requests and fraud referrals.
(13) These figures are not available broken down per month.
(14) Records were maintained clerically and are incomplete for these months.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he intends to answer question number 114044, tabled by the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire for answer on Monday 19 May. [120325]
Maria Eagle:
A reply was given to the hon. Member on 19 June. Further information was given in a subsequent reply on 15 July.
17 Jul 2003 : Column 556W
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether it is his policy that written answers from Ministers in his Department should be deposited in the Library on the day of answering before the rising of the House; and if he will make a statement. [126367]
Maria Eagle: Written answers are despatched in time for them to be delivered before the rising of the House on the day of answering. If the hon. Member is aware of any difficulties I will be pleased to look into the matter.
Pendle
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what policies (a) initiated and (b) managed by his Department since 2001 had an impact on Pendle; and if he will make a statement. [124087]
Maria Eagle: Since 2001 this Department has introduced a range of reforms which are delivering opportunity and independence for all. Amongst the major reforms are the introduction of work focused interviews and the New Deal programmes that are helping people return to work and contribute to record levels of employment. To protect today's pensioners we introduced the Minimum Income Guarantee, which ensures a minimum level of income for all pensioners; and from October this year, the Pension Credit which will also reward modest savings. In addition, the Winter Fuel Payment is payable to all pensioner households and will be increased by 100 from this winter for every household where someone is aged 80 or over. The Child Support reforms will increase the levels of child maintenance paid to parents, and along with the introduction of the Child Tax Credit, are helping to tackle child poverty. We have also introduced a range of policies that protect people from discrimination on the grounds of disability, help more people with disabilities to find employment, or support those who are unable to work.
These policies impact upon the whole of Great Britain. The Departmental Report contains details of all areas of DWP's work. This can be accessed, via the internet at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2003/dwpreport/index.asp Copies of the Departmental Report are available in the Library.
To indicate the impact of some of the policies introduced, unemployment as a proportion of the working age population in Pendle has fallen since 1997 to 2.3 per cent. from 2.8 per cent., with over 20 per cent. fewer lone parents claiming income support. And more than 16,000 pensioners in Pendle will be entitled to the Winter Fuel Payment this year.
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