§ Mr. WelshTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many visiting officers there are in each Benefits Agency in Scotland; [116558]
(2) what was the cost of travel and subsistence for officers based in Edinburgh visiting clients throughout the rest of Scotland for each of the last three years; how many visits were involved and to what destinations. [116521]
§ Angela EagleThis is a matter for Peter Mathison, the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Andrew Welsh, dated 28 March 2000:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions asking for the cost of travel and subsistence for officers based in Edinburgh visiting clients throughout the rest of Scotland for each of the last three years; how many visits were involved and to what destinations. Also, how many visiting officers there are in each Benefits Agency (BA) office in Scotland.The BA does not hold data on the cost of travel and subsistence by geographical location. Most visiting officers are based in District Offices and do not make visits outside their home areas. Officers based in Edinburgh who visit customers outside the Edinburgh area 167W provide the Benefits Agency's Out of Hours Service (OOHS) and the Benefit raud Investigation Service (BFIS). Their travel and subsistence costs cannot be broken down for visiting officers as they are aggregated across the Agency. Figures would include travel for other official duties such as training courses and meetings.The Disability Carer Benefits Directorate (DCBD) has calculated travel and subsistence costs of *8976.24, for the period from April 1999 to date, for their officers in Edinburgh visiting customers throughout Scotland.The BA does not hold information centrally on the number of visits and destinations. These figures could only be obtained at disproportionate cost by manually counting entries in visiting officer's diaries.The number of visiting officers based in Scotland is as follows:
Number Benefits Agency District Officers 352 DCBD (Disability Benefits Centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow) 13 Benefit Fraud Investigation Service 275 Benefits Agency Security Investigation Service (Organised Fraud) 16 I hope this is helpful.