HC Deb 24 June 2003 vol 407 cc755-6W
John Barrett

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Croydon, South (Richard Ottaway) of 9 June 2000,Official Report, columns 702–3W, on housing benefit fraud, if he will list the local authorities in Scotland which have signed up for the Verification Framework. [119730]

Malcolm Wicks

The following 25 local authorities in Scotland, out of a total of 32, have signed up for the Verification Framework and are compliant in one or more of the three modules:

  • Aberdeenshire
  • Angus
  • Argyll and Bute
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Dumfries and Galloway
    • 756W
  • East Dunbartonshire
  • East Lothian
  • East Renfrewshire
  • Falkirk
  • Fife
  • Highland
  • Inverclyde
  • Midlothian
  • Moray
  • North Lanarkshire
  • Orkney
  • Perthshire and Kinross
  • Scottish Borders
  • Shetland
  • South Ayrshire
  • South Lanarkshire
  • Stirling
  • West Dunbartonshire
  • West Lothian
  • Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)

We are encouraging the remaining local authorities to become compliant with the Verification Framework.