Fraud
Communities and Local Government

Gareth Thomas (Harrow West, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the level of (a) procurement and (b) other fraud affecting his Department's spending in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Neill (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)

Since 2010 Departments have reported detected fraud and error on their quarterly data summaries. These quarterly data summaries are published on departmental websites. There have been no frauds reported in 2010-11 or 2011-12.

My Department has following control arrangements in place to counter fraud:

A fraud policy statement and fraud response plan on the Department's Intranet that is accessible to all staff. These advise staff on the steps to take if they suspect fraud.

We have signed up to the Audit Commission's National Fraud Initiative, which is the UK's main public sector fraud detection tool, which offers payroll and creditor data-matching services to central Government Departments, agencies and local authorities.

We have a Fraud, Error and Debt Champion who has represented the Department in the Fraud Error and Debt initiatives that have been driven by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and the National Fraud Authority.

We are working with the Cabinet Office on a Fraud Awareness Week, currently planned for the autumn.