§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Chris Pond)On behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) has provided further details of its work programme of inspections, as part of its Phase 8 programme for 2003–04. This is in addition to the Phase 8 announcement made on 20 March 2003.
The BFI is an independent unit within the Department for Work and Pensions that inspects and reports directly to my right hon. Friend on the standard of benefit administration and counter-fraud activity in local authorities and departmental agencies.
As part of the additional Phase 8 activity, BFI will be undertaking a first inspection of the Isles of Scilly local authority. As this authority is unique in that the Housing Benefit team administers less than 100 claims, BFI proposes to produce a summary report.
Follow-up inspections on 12 other local authorities will also be undertaken. Seven of these authorities have been identified from post inspection monitoring of performance. Six were judged as poor or fair for their benefits services during the Comprehensive Performance Assessments in 2002, and another has failed to implement key recommendations from the first inspection.
The remaining five local authorities have been identified from management information provided by them. The local authorities chosen are some that have continuously been in the bottom quartile of best value performance indicators for 2002–03. These authorities have previously been inspected by BFI but have failed to improve in the administration of housing benefits.
BFI will also be assessing 197 district local authorities as part of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment programme, and five Scottish local authorities as part of the Scottish best value programme.