§ Mr. PicklesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the procedures of the Borough of Brentwood District Council in preventing and detecting fraud. [118601]
§ Angela EagleWe are aware that Brentwood Borough Council is operating the Royal Mail "do not redirect" scheme, is using the Housing Benefit Matching Service and has a Remote Access Terminal installed. It has also applied to this Department for Electronic Transfer of Data which will be installed during the summer.
The authority exceeded its weekly benefit savings threshold by 82 per cent. in 1998–99 resulting in additional subsidy of around £16,000.
However, the Borough has expressed no interest in implementing the Verification Framework and we have no record that they prosecuted or referred any cases of fraud for prosecution between April 1996 and April 1999.