Speeches by Smith.

“Q We just heard that serious organised fraud is considered to be only 10% of what is taken from the Department at the moment. Do you think that the measures to give DWP investigators power of entry, search and seizure are the right approach to tackling that 10% of serious organised fraud that exists? Helena Wood: Absol…”

“Q It would still be helpful to have something in writing, even in advance of each issue that we can scrutinise, because we are being asked to scrutinise something in its fullness without a level of detail. Anyway, I will leave that there, because it has been covered enough. Now the question that I was coming to, if I m…”

“Q I will come in briefly, because I am conscious of the time. I was interested in what Professor Button was talking about—encouraging people to commit fraud, and the rise of online videos, TikTok and all that sort of thing—and I wonder whether you think that the Bill does enough to allow for going after people who choo…”

“7. What steps his Department is taking to support women and girls’ rights in Afghanistan.”

“The cruelty and inhumanity of the Taliban should appal us all, and no doubt we all condemn the ban on medical training. The UK has provided significant aid to Afghanistan to support the health of women and babies, but with the Taliban now undermining women’s health as well as their rights, what will happen to these aid…”

“Q I will ask one question in a second, but I wanted to come back on the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire made about the code of practice. The Minister has said that each time in our scrutiny we get to a point in the Bill that relates to a bit of the code of practice, he will…”

“Particularly in relation to bank account details and information on spending, and that sort of thing, which you just used as an example. Jasleen Chaggar: On the eligibility verification measures—what we are calling the bank spying powers—we are recommending that they be removed in their entirety. They really are unprec…”

“Q What would get you to a place of feeling more comfortable with those safeguards? A provision that you can use the data once and then you cannot use it again? Where would you need to see movement in order to get to a place where you were comfortable with the safeguards? Jasleen Chaggar: Is that in relation to—”

“Q The Bill is sort of a move on from the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which was introduced by the last Government. I know that the Information Commissioner had some concerns about the Bill’s previous iteration, and he has said that those concerns have roughly been addressed in this new Bill. Are you si…”

“Q Thank you, Chair, and thank you, gentlemen. We have heard quite a lot of concerns already this afternoon about the potential disproportionate impact on disabled people. It would be good to hear from you as disability campaigners—because we have kind of heard people talking on your behalf so far—about how you think th…”

“Thank you.”

“Q This is possibly a slightly nuanced question, but there has been a lot of talk about the authorised officer role. To my mind, when you go from the Minister to the authorised officer, that feels like quite a big jump in title. It might be quite a small thing but, from your experience at the PSFA, does that terminology…”

“Q On eligibility verification, the Government have said that the final decision will always be made by a human. There is an aim to automate some things, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but do you feel reassured by the human element at the end of the process, so that people are not adversely affected by automation…”

“Q You will have heard our previous questions. We talked about the cost-benefit analysis for businesses in the private sector. In your Justice work, what is your assessment of the proportionality of that measures in the Bill that, in essence, tell financial institutions that they have to share that information with the …”

“Q We see that there has been a lack of robust assessment of business costs so far. The Government have been unable to say what the cost to the banks will be. Do you have any concerns about the costs or the other impacts on businesses in the sectors? I suppose the flip question of that is: do you think there should be i…”

“Q Interestingly, one of the previous witnesses talked about powers that other countries have but we do not, which potentially would do exactly what you have just described. Are there any countries already doing something along the lines of what you just suggested it would be helpful for us to look at—perhaps not for th…”

“Q Given what you just said about the nature of the data that is already collected, could we avoid the fraud in the first place by sharing a lot of that information? If cross-departmental working is tightened up, might there be opportunities to flag fraud as soon as it starts to happen? John Smart: Absolutely. There are…”

“Q Based on your experience and the work that you are already doing with the PSFA, are there any gaps in the Bill? Is there anything that you think is not there that would help us to tackle fraud against public authorities, or do you think that as it stands, it is about as complete as you would want it to be? John Smart…”

“That would be great. Joshua Reddaway: First, we should be clear: with most fraud, once the payment has gone, you are not going to get it back. I have a professional next to me who can talk to you about the challenges and the pursuit, but if you ask how much fraud is out there, the answer is a lot. If you add up all the…”

“Q How far do you think the increased time limit that would be in place for investigating fraud related to the covid-19 schemes will improve recovery rates? That is a slightly different topic, but do you think those longer time limits mean that we are more able to recover that money? Joshua Reddaway: In short, yes. Woul…”