§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 8 June,Official Report, columns 209–10, how many cases of national insurance contributions evasion have been uncovered, resulting in action short of legal prosecution; and how much revenue has been recovered in each year since 1984–85.
§ Mr. HagueThe administration of national insurance is a matter for Miss Ann Chant, the chief executive of the Contributions Agency. She will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from Miss A. Chant to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 23 June 1993:
As Chief Executive of the Contributions Agency I am responsible for answering questions about relevant operational matters. I have been asked to reply to your question about the number of cases of National Insurance Contributions evasion which have resulted in action short of legal prosecution and the amount of revenue recovered.
The Agency considers investigation of all cases of apparent non-compliance with National Insurance law. However, it does not attempt to differentiate between cases which involve genuine mistakes made by employers and those which involve suspected evasion of liability as it is often difficult to draw a clear dividing line between these two extremes of non-compliance. The Agency's main objective is to collect arrears and ensure current and future compliance. It does, of course, keep a particularly close eye on any employers it thinks may be involved in deliberate evasion.
In his reply to your earlier questions my Deputy, Mr. Bertram, supplied details of the number of cases that had been authorised for prosecution but pointed out that we had no specific details about evasion. He also explained that the 325W Agency uncovers cases of many types of non-compliance in a variety of ways, including survey visits made to employers by inspectors, examination and processing of employers' End of Year Returns and enquiries made by individual contributors. Throughout the whole range of our activities the Agency has not encountered any evidence that evasion of National Insurance liability by employers is a significant problem. But it always investigates thoroughly any instances of suspected or alleged evasion.
Figures for the numbers of cases of evasion which result in action short of prosecution are not kept. Indeed they would be virtually impossible to categorise with any degree of robustness. But an effective monitoring and control system ensures that appropriate action is taken in all cases where non-compliance is uncovered whatever the cause.
I regret that I am unable to give you the precise information that you requested but I hope that my reply will prove helpful. If you have any further queries on the matter I would be only too pleased to discuss them with you.