Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Social Security – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 May 1999.
There is good progress on a range of fronts. We have earmarked funding in each Benefits Agency area to help to build stronger links with local authorities. Last month, the Benefits Agency and local authorities were invited to submit joint proposals for projects to tackle fraud together. Service level agreements are in place giving each party a clear statement of how co—operation should work in practice. Among other initiatives, we have, so far, installed more than 300 remote access terminals to allow local authorities access to Department of Social Security benefits data.