§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) on whose authority binoculars were issued to social security investigators; how many have been issued; what was their total cost; by whom they are being used and for what purpose; and if there are any guidelines as to their use;
(2) if he will prohibit the use of binoculars by social service officers to observe social security claimants.
§ Mr. PrenticeThe Department seeks to investigate social security fraud as effectively and economically as possible, and to provide whatever facilities are needed for this purpose. The binoculars to which the hon. Member refers were issued as part of the process of improving the Department's counter-measures against fraud. One element in the six-point action plan which was announced by the right hon. Member for Salford, West (Mr. Orme) on 29 July 1976 was training the specialists in the best techniques of fraud investigation and providing the facilities they need to do a good job. Two pairs of binoculars have been issued to a nominated officer in each of the Department's 12 regional office fraud sections. The total cost was £503. The binoculars are for the use of the Department's 510—September 1979—special investigators as occasion demands. Their purpose is of course to assist in identification where close observation is impracticable, for example in the case of someone suspected of working in an itinerant agricultural gang or on a building site while claiming benefit as an unemployed person. Each regional office has been left to determine the precise allocation and use of its binoculars, in the light of the managerial control which it exercises over all special investigation.
I have no intention of prohibiting the use of binoculars for this desirable and properly controlled purpose.