§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons have been prosecuted by his Department during 1977 either for potato picking or fruit picking, and being paid for it, while at the same time not declaring such income for the purposes of social security benefits.
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in light of the ban on overtime in operation by the Society of Civil and Public Servants since Monday 14th November 1977. what estimate he 884W has made of the effect of this on fraud investigation among local office fraud officers and special investigators, respectively.
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what regional drives were conducted by his Department in 1975 against fraud; and what was the percentage of fraud found in each drive analysed by offence.
§ Mr. OrmeIn 1975, eight of the Department's 12 social security regions conducted a total of 50 special fraud drives. The following is a list of the areas examined:
- Biscuit factories
- Holiday camps
- Taxi companies
- Industrial cleaners
- Seaside beach work
- Demolition contractors
- Fish docks
- Timber yards
- Potato picking
- Licensed premises
- Scrap collection
- Caravan sites
The 495 offences disclosed by these drives were all of working whilst drawing various kinds of benefit. It is not possible to represent the figure as a percentage as the total number of employees at each location examined was not recorded at the time of the drive.