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10 Oct 2005 : Column 179W—continued
Stolen Passports
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the HomeDepartment how many passports were stolen in each of the last three years for which figures are available, broken down by police force area; and how many of those passports were subsequently used fraudulently. [9957]
Andy Burnham
[holding answer 5 July 2005]: The numbers of passports reported as lost or stolen for the last three years are as follows:
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The figures for 2002 and 2003 are collated from applications for replacement passports, and therefore may not accurately reflect all passports that were lost or stolen in those years. The figures for 2004 have been collated from new arrangements that more accurately reflect the numbers of passports reported to the UK Passport Service (UKPS) as lost or stolen. The reporting process does not discriminate between passports reported as lost and those reported as stolen. It is not possible to break down these totals by police force area, and UKPS do not have figures on the subsequent use of such passports in fraudulent activities.
Terrorist Attack (London)
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long it took the emergency services to reach each of the underground trains attacked on 7 July; and how long it took to reach the bus that was attacked. [14158]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The following table is drawn from information provided by the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service. The times given are those at which the control room was first notified and when the first crews were officially recorded as arriving at the locations to which they were mobilised. This may not have been the trains themselves as a number were deep underground. As three of the scenes were at stations, British Transport Police Officers were often already on the scene. Additionally many police officers who were near the scenes self deployed to assist.
(59)Officers already on scene
(60)Approximately
Timber
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department's procurement policy includes timber used on and in the construction of departmental building projects; and if he will make a statement. [16315]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The Home Office uses a standard timber procurement contract clause when tendering for construction and refurbishment projects. This stipulates that timber used in those projects must be from legal and sustainable sources.
Yarl's Wood Detention Centre
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to review the arrangements at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre, with particular reference to children being held there. [16345]
Mr. McNulty: Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre is currently used to detain single women and families with children. We have no plans to review or to change these arrangements.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefit Fraud
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many (a) males and (b) females have been (i) charged with and (ii) convicted of benefit fraud in (A) Essex, (B) Southend and (C) England and Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available; [15081]
(2) how many (a) males and (b) females pleaded guilty to benefit fraud in each area in England and Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available; [15486]
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(3) how many (a) males and (b) females aged (i) 17 to 24, (ii) 25 to 30, (iii) 31 to 35, (iv) 36 to 40 and (v) over 40 years were (1) charged and (2) convicted of benefit fraud in each of the last five years for which figures are available; [15487]
(4) how many (a) males and (b) females aged (i) 17 to 24, (ii) 25 to 30, (iii) 31 to 35, (iv) 36 to 40 and (v) over 40 years pleaded guilty to benefit fraud in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [15488]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not collated centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many convictions for benefit fraud there were in each year since 1997. [15440]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the table.
Note:
1.For local authorities, figures prior to 2001–02 have been rounded to the nearest 100 because they include estimated values for non-responding local authorities.
Sources:
1.DSS/DWP figures are taken from Fraud Information By Sector and National Investigation Service (NIS) Resource Management.
2.From 2001–02 onwards, the numbers are taken from subsidy claim forms. Prior to this, the numbers are taken from management information returns.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps (a) he has taken and (b) plans to take to reduce benefit fraud; and if he will make a statement. [15489]
Mr. Plaskitt: We have firm targets to reduce fraud and error overpayments in income support and jobseeker's allowance for working age people by 33 per cent. by March 2004, and by 50 per cent. by March 2006.
By September 2004, we had reduced fraud and error in income support and jobseeker's allowance by 41 per cent. to 6.1 per cent. compared with the 1998 baseline figure of 10.4 per cent. achieving the first stage of the target. At the same time, we had reduced the level of fraud in working age income support and jobseeker's allowance by more than half.
This shows we are getting results in preventing, detecting and deterring fraud. We have improved data matching to catch people who work and claim and other tools in our armoury, such as the National Benefit Fraud Hotline mean we are clamping down on fraudsters.
The Targeting Fraud campaign has helped to increase public awareness of the problem of fraud and is currently targeting fraudsters and potential fraudsters directly, with messages of deterrence and detection, warning them that 'We're on to you'.
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In 2004–05, in partnership with local authorities, we imposed nearly 43,000 prosecutions and sanctions—more than ever before.
Our efforts in the future will focus on further development of our effective criminal investigation structure for fraud and strong controls on the day-to-day processing of benefit claims to stop fraud before it starts.
Child Support Agency
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on how many occasions the Child Support Agency's internal audit recommended that risk mitigation plans be (a) kept up to date and (b) actioned timeously. [6197]
Mr. Plaskitt: DWP internal audit has only made the recommendation once in the last three years. The recommendation was business unit specific and not applicable to the whole agency. Following the review and implementation of the business unit action plan the recommendation was cleared.
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