§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 20 March 2003,Official Report, columns 925–26W, on fraud and the New Deal, (1) if he will make a statement on the nature of the frauds committed by contractors in relation to the New Deal; and what steps his Department has taken to prevent such frauds; [105351]
(2) if he will list, in each year in which an estimated total loss was given in his answer, the cases in which fraud was found to have occurred, and the precise level of the fraud in each case. [105352]
§ Mr. Nicholas Brown[holding answer 27 March 2003]: Allegations made against contractors delivering New Deal programmes fall mainly into two broad categories: allegations that the claimed outcomes were fabricated or mis-stated, and allegations that the claimed training delivered was not in fact provided.
New Deal providers are subject to thorough contractual and quality audits. These specifically consider the delivery of training against the requirements set out in the contract between Jobcentre Plus and providers. Contractual terms and conditions include appropriate clauses requiring parties to the contract to use all reasonable endeavours to safeguard Jobcentre Plus funding of the New Deal against fraud generally and, in particular fraud on the part of the provider's directors, employees or sub-contractors.
The Department investigates all such allegations, of which some are false, some are true but caused through clerical or administrative error and others are caused by fraud.
Where evidence of fraud is found, it is reported at the earliest opportunity to the police, who are responsible for any subsequent criminal law investigation. Some reported fraud is suspected to be corporate, but most cases are investigated as internal frauds by employees of the contractor.
Since the Department's action following investigation is often a referral to outside bodies, such as the police, it is not possible to state the outcome of each case.