Ms Nusrat Ghani
MP for Sussex Weald · Conservative · United Kingdom
“Before we come to the urgent question, I must say how disappointing it is that the Government were not forthcoming with a proactive ministerial statement on this matter. The disruption to aviation and the impact on many constituents has been considerable.”
“The point of order and its content are not a matter for the Chair. I have not been notified of any Minister coming forward at this point, but I have only just come into the Chair. If the hon.”
“(3) Regulations under section 14Z45B must provide that, where an out-of-hospital service is to be provided to a patient, the integrated care board must— (a) offer the patient a choice of at least two providers capable of providing the service, which may include NHS bodies and independent sector providers approved to provide that service u…”
“(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), the relevant requirements are— (a) that the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHC plan meets the needs identified by an EHC needs assessment; (b) that ICBs can be required to provide such special educational provision; (c) that ICBs must provide such special educational provis…”
“(3) The Charter must— (a) set out the fundamental principles and responsibilities for assessing whether a data sharing partnership is in the interest of the public and the NHS; (b) include the primary goal of protecting people’s privacy and their data from exploitation, while promoting trust in data systems and the handling of health data…”
“(2) Arrangements under subsection (1) must, so far as reasonably practicable, provide for— (a) general practitioners, dentists, pharmacists and other relevant primary care professionals to work together as part of integrated local primary care teams; (b) the sharing of relevant patient information between those professionals through secur…”
The complete record
Every one of 4,837 lines we hold for Ms Nusrat Ghani, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 31 of 97.
“New clause 13— Code of practice for the use of children’s educational data — “(1) Within 6 months of the passage of this Act, the Information Commissioner must prepare a code of practice which contains such guidance as the Information Commissioner considers appropriate on the processing of children’s data in connection with the provision of education.”
“(1B) Paragraph (1A) does not apply to— (a) platform systems and services operated where the primary purpose of processing of personal data is for the advancement of a charitable purpose as defined in the Charities Act 2011; (b) publicly owned platform systems and services operated for the primary purpose of law enforcement, child protection, education, or healthcare; (c) cases in which the Secretary of State determines it is in the best interests of the child for an operator to accept the child’s own consent.’” This new clause would raise the age for processing personal data from 13 to 16 years old with certain exceptions for charitable purposes and child safety.”
“(2) (2) After paragraph 1 of Article 8 of the UK GDPR (Conditions applicable to child’s consent in relation to information society services) insert— ‘(1A) References to “13 years old” and “age of 13 years” in paragraph 1 shall be read as “16 years old” and “age of 16 years” in the case of processing of personal data.”
“(8) For the purposes of this section— ‘internet service provider (ISP)’ includes any provider of social media, messaging, or other online platforms; and ‘data protection legislation’ has the meaning given in section 51 of this Act.” This new clause would allow parents of a deceased minor to obtain that child’s social media data without a court order, subject to privacy safeguards for third parties. New clause 12— Raising the minimum age at which users can consent to processing of personal data — “(1) The UK GDPR is amended in accordance with subsection (2) of this section.”
“(4) The ISP may refuse or redact specific data only where— (a) disclosure would unduly infringe the privacy rights of another individual, (b) the deceased person had explicitly opted out before death, (c) there is a conflicting court order, or (d) a serious risk to public safety or national security would result. (5) In providing data under this section, the ISP must comply with data protection legislation. (6) This section constitutes a lawful basis for disclosure under Article 6 of the UK GDPR. (7) The Secretary of State may, by regulations subject to the affirmative resolution procedure— (a) provide guidance on verifying parent or guardian status, (b) clarify any additional grounds for refusal, and (c) prescribe safeguards to protect third-party confidentiality.”
“New clause 11— Access to a deceased child’s social media data — “(1) Where a person under 18 years of age has deceased, a parent or legal guardian (the ‘requestor’) may request from any internet service provider (ISP) the child’s user data from up to 12 months prior to the date of death. (2) The ISP must provide a copy of the requested data, or direct account access, upon verification of the requestor’s identity and relationship to the deceased person, and no court order shall be required for such disclosure. (3) ‘User data’ includes all content, communications, or metadata generated by or associated with the deceased person’s online activity, including stored messages and posts, except where the deceased person had explicitly directed otherwise prior to death.”
“(2) The Data use in Public Service Delivery Review shall include, but is not limited to assessment of the steps being taken to— (a) improve the Government’s use of data in public service delivery over the previous 12 months; (b) expand the use of data to support increased and improved digital services in public service delivery; (c) improve expertise and digital talent within Government departments to help expand the use of data for public service delivery; and (d) facilitate and regulate for better use of data in the delivery of public services.” This new clause would require an annual assessment by the Secretary of State to examine the steps being taken to facilitate and regulate the use of data in the delivery of public services using digital and online technologies.”
“(2) The person or persons appointed as under subsection (1) shall provide an annual report on the progress of the department or body towards the Government’s Data Vision and Strategy.” This new clause would require digital leaders to be represented at executive level within Government departments and other bodies. New clause 10— Data use in Public Service Delivery Review — “(1) The Secretary of State must, every 12 months, lay before Parliament a ‘Data use in Public Service Delivery Review’.”
“New clause 8— Data Vision and Strategy — “Within six months of Royal Assent of this Act, the Secretary of State must publish a ‘Data Vision and Strategy’ which outlines— (a) the Government’s data transformation priorities for the next five years; and (b) steps the Government will take to ensure the digitisation of Government services.” New clause 9— Departmental Board Appointments — “(1) Within six months of the day on which this Act is passed— (a) Government departments; (b) NHS England; and (c) NHS trusts shall appoint to their departmental board or equivalent body at least one of the following— (i) Chief Information Officer; (ii) Chief Technology Officer; (iii) Chief Digital Information Officer; (iv) Service Transformation Leader; or (v) equivalent postholder.”
“(2) Where it is reasonably practicable for an organisation to offer a non-digital method of verification, the organisation must— (a) make a non-digital alternative method of verification available to any individual required to use a verification service; and (b) provide information about digital and non-digital methods of verification to those individuals before verification is required.” This new clause would create a duty upon organisations to support digital inclusion by offering non-digital verification services where practicable.”
“(2) Within 18 months of the day on which this Act is passed, the Secretary of State must report on such technical solutions and must issue guidance as to the technical solutions to be adopted and other recommendations for the protection of the interests of copyright owners.” This new clause requires the Secretary of State to review and report on technical measures to prevent unauthorised data scraping by web crawlers and AI models. New clause 7— Right to use non-digital verification services — “(1) This section applies when an organisation— (a) requires an individual to use a verification service; and (b) uses a digital verification service for that purpose.”
“New clause 6 —Technical solutions— “(1) The Secretary of State must conduct a review of the technical solutions that may be adopted by copyright owners and by the operators of web crawlers and general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) models whose services have links with the United Kingdom within the meaning of section 4(5) of the Online Safety Act 2023 to prevent and to identify the unauthorised scraping or other unauthorised use of copyright owners’ text and data.”
“(4) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament a draft of the statutory instrument containing the regulations under this section within six months of the day on which this Act is passed and the regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.” This new clause grants the Information Commissioner enforcement powers to ensure compliance with AI and web crawler transparency rules, including penalties for breaches.”
“(2) The regulations must provide that any failure to comply with the duties by a relevant operator shall be directly actionable by any copyright owner who is adversely affected by such failure, and that such copyright owner will be entitled to recover damages for any loss suffered and to injunctive relief. (3) The regulations must provide that the powers of the Commissioner and the rights of a copyright owner will apply in relation to a relevant operator providing a service from outside the United Kingdom (as well as such one provided from within the United Kingdom).”
“New clause 5— Enforcement — “(1) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision requiring the Information Commission (under section 114 of the Data Protection Act 2018) (‘the Commissioner’) to monitor and secure compliance with the duties by an operator of a web crawler or general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) model whose service has links with the United Kingdom within the meaning of section 4(5) of the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘a relevant operator’), including but not limited to the following— (a) the regulations must provide for the Commissioner to have the power by written notice (an ‘information notice’) to require a relevant operator to provide the Commissioner with information that the Commissioner reasonably requires for the purposes of investigating a suspected failure to comply with the duties; (b) the regulations must provide for the Commissioner to have the power by written notice (an ‘assessment notice’) to require and to permit the Commissioner to carry out an assessment of whether a relevant operator has complied or is complying with the duties and to require a relevant operator to do any of the acts set out in section 146(2) of the Data Protection Act 2018; (c) the regulations must provide that where the Commissioner is satisfied 15 that a relevant operator has failed, or is failing to comply with the duties, the Commissioner may give the relevant operator a written notice (an ‘enforcement notice’) which requires it— (i) to take steps specified in the notice, or (ii) to refrain from taking steps specified in the notice; (d) the regulations must provide that where the Commissioner is satisfied that a relevant operator has failed or is failing to comply with the duties or has failed to comply with an information notice, an assessment notice or an enforcement notice, the Commissioner may, by written notice (a ‘penalty notice’), require the person to pay to the Commissioner an amount in sterling specified in the notice, the maximum amount of the penalty that may be imposed by a penalty notice being the ‘higher maximum amount’ as defined in section 157 of the Data Protection Act 2018; and (e) the regulations may provide for the procedure and rights of appeal 30 in relation to the giving of an information notice, an assessment notice, an enforcement notice or a penalty notice.”
“(2) The disclosure of information under subsection (1) must be updated on a monthly basis in such form as the regulations may prescribe and be published in such manner as the regulations may prescribe so as to ensure that it is accessible to copyright owners upon request. (3) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament a draft of the statutory 35 instrument containing regulations under subsection (1) within six months of the day on which this Act is passed and the regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.” This new clause mandates transparency about the sources and types of data used in AI training, requiring monthly updates accessible to copyright owners.”
“New clause 4— Transparency of copyrighted works scraped — “(1) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision requiring operators of web crawlers and general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) models whose services have links with the United Kingdom within the meaning of section 4(5) of the Online Safety Act 2023 to disclose information regarding text and data used in the pre-training, training and fine-tuning of general purpose AI models, including but not limited to— (a) the URLs accessed by crawlers deployed by them or by third parties on their behalf or from whom they have obtained text or data, (b) the text and data used for the pre-training, training and fine-tuning, including the type and provenance of the text and data and the means by which it was obtained, and (c) information that can be used to identify individual works, and (d) the timeframe of data collection.”
“(5) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament a draft of the statutory instrument containing regulations under this section within six months of the day on which this Act is passed and the regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.” This new clause requires operators of web crawlers and AI models to disclose their identity, purpose, data-sharing practices, and use separate crawlers for different functions.”
“(2) The information disclosed under subsection (1) must be available on an easily accessible platform and updated at the same time as any change. (3) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision requiring operators of web crawlers and general-purpose AI models to deploy distinct crawlers for different purposes, including but not limited to— (a) web indexing for search engine results pages, (b) general-purpose AI model pre-training, and (c) retrieval-augmented generation. (4) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision requiring operators of web crawlers and general-purpose AI models to ensure that the exclusion of a crawler by a copyright owner does not negatively impact the findability of the copyright owner’s content in a search engine.”
“New clause 3— Transparency of crawler identity, purpose and segmentation — “(1) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision requiring operators of web crawlers and general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) models whose services have links with the United Kingdom within the meaning of section 4(5) of the Online Safety Act 2023 to disclose information regarding the identity of crawlers used by them or by third parties on their behalf, including but not limited to— (a) the name of the crawler, (b) the legal entity responsible for the crawler, (c) the specific purposes for which each crawler is used, (d) the legal entities to which operators provide data scraped by the crawlers they operate, and (e) a single point of contact to enable copyright owners to communicate 35 with them and to lodge complaints about the use of their copyrighted works.”
“(2) Provision made under subsection (1) must apply to the entire lifecycle of a general-purpose AI model, including but not limited to— (a) pre-training and training, (b) fine tuning, (c) grounding and retrieval-augmented generation, and (d) the collection of data for the said purposes. (3) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament a draft of the statutory instrument containing regulations under subsection (1) within six months of the day on which this Act is passed and the regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.” This new clause requires web crawlers and general-purpose AI models with UK links to comply with UK copyright law across all stages of AI development.”
“New clause 2— Compliance with UK copyright law by operators of web crawlers and general-purpose AI models— “(1) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision (including any such provision as might be made by Act of Parliament), requiring the operators of web crawlers and general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) models whose services have links with the United Kingdom within the meaning of section 4(5) of the Online Safety Act 2023 to comply with United Kingdom copyright law, including the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, regardless of the jurisdiction in which the copyright-relevant acts relating to the pre-training, development and operation of those web crawlers and general-purpose AI models take place.”
“(1B) For the purposes of paragraph 1A “social networking services” means any online service that— (a) allows users to create profiles and interact publicly or privately with other users, and (b) facilitates the sharing of user-generated content, including text, images, or videos, with a wider audience. (1C) Paragraph 1B does not apply to— (a) educational platforms and learning management systems provided in recognised educational settings, where personal data processing is solely for educational purposes. (b) health and well-being services, including NHS digital services, mental health support applications, and crisis helplines, where personal data processing is necessary for the provision of care and support’”. This new clause would raise the age for processing personal data in the case of social networking services from 13 to 16.”
“With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Government new clause 17— Report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems . New clause 1— Age of consent for social media data processing— “(1) The UK GDPR is as amended as follows. (2) In Article 8 of the UK GDPR (Conditions applicable to child's consent in relation to information society services) After paragraph 1 insert— ‘(1A) References to 13 years old in paragraph 1 shall be read as 16 years old in the case of social networking services processing personal data for the purpose of delivering personalised content, including targeted advertising and algorithmically curated recommendations.”
“With the co-operation of colleagues, we got everybody in. We now come to the Front-Bench speakers, starting with the shadow Secretary of State.”
“The hon. Member has put his point on the record. I cannot ensure that the appropriate Minister will visit his constituency, but the whole House is now invited, no doubt on the same day, so I wish him well.”
“I am grateful for advance warning of the hon. Member’s point of order. Ministerial correspondence is not a matter for the Chair, but all hon. Members should be entitled to expect a timely reply, especially when they are contacting Government Departments on behalf of their constituents. I am sure that those on the Treasury Front Bench will have noted the hon. Member’s comments, and no doubt he will receive a response in due course.”
“This amendment would mean that benefits could not be added to the list of “relevant benefits” by regulations. Amendment 7, page 84, leave out lines 13 to 17. This amendment ensure that the bill can only be used in relation to benefits listed in the Bill. Amendment 21, page 84, line 25, after “money” insert “or such an account which is held by a person appointed to receive benefits on behalf of another person.” Government amendments 46 to 67. Amendment 9, in schedule 5, page 98, line 10, leave out from beginning to end of line 24 on page 99. This amendment would remove the requirement for banks to provide information to the Secretary of State for the purposes of making a direct deduction order. Government amendments 68 and 69. Amendment 12, page 111, line 18, leave out schedule 6. Government amendment 70.”
“Amendment 11, in schedule 3, page 73, line 25, leave out from “accounts” to the end of line 31 and insert— “which belong to a person who the authorised officer has reasonable grounds to suspect has committed, is committing or intends to commit a DWP offence.” This amendment would limit the exercise of an eligibility verification notice to cases where the welfare recipient is suspected of wrongdoing. Amendment 22, page 84, line 12, at end insert “(d) housing benefit.” Amendment 6, page 84, leave out line 12 This amendment would remove pension credit from being a “relevant benefit” for the purposes of the Act. Amendment 71, page 84, line 13, leave out from “to” to end of line 17 and insert— “remove types of benefit from the definition of”.”
“Amendment 20, page 64, line 1, at end insert— “(3A) Before bringing into force any of the provisions of Part 1 of this Act, the Secretary of State must consult with banks as to the costs which will be incurred by banks upon application of the provisions of Part 1. (3B) Where consultation finds that the expected costs to banks are at a disproportionate level, the Secretary of State may not bring into force the provisions which are expected to result in such disproportionate costs.” Government amendments 72 and 45. Amendment 5, page 73, line 6, leave out schedule 3. This amendment is related to Amendment 2 and removes the requirement for Banks to look into relevant claimants’ bank accounts.”
“Amendment 4, in clause 103, page 63, line 29, leave out from start to “following” in line 32 and insert— “Subject to subsections (1A) and (2), this Act comes into force on such day as the Secretary of State or the Minister for the Cabinet Office may by regulations appoint. (1A) No part of this Act may come into force until the recommendations of a report commissioned under section [Recovery of overpayments of Carer’s Allowance] have been implemented. (2) Subject to subsection (1A), the” This amendment which would delay the implementation of the whole Act until the findings of the independent review into Carer’s Allowance overpayments has been published and fully implemented.”
“Amendment 8, in clause 89, page 55, line 6, leave out from “unless” to the end of line 14 and insert— “(a) the liable person agrees, or (b) there has been a final determination by a court or tribunal that it is necessary and proportionate to exercise a power under Schedule 3ZA.” This amendment would mean that the Secretary of State can only exercise powers to recover amounts from a person where the person agrees or where a court or tribunal has determined that such recovery is necessary and proportionate. Amendment 10, page 56, line 16, leave out clause 91. Government amendments 79, 78, 77, 74, 73 and 44.”
“Amendment 2, page 40, line 36, leave out clause 74. This amendment removes the requirement for Banks to look into relevant claimants’ bank accounts. Amendment 3, in clause 75, page 41, line 21, at end insert— “(1A) Prior to appointing an independent person, the Minister must consult the relevant committee of the House of Commons. (1B) For the purposes of subsection (1A), “the relevant committee” means a committee determined by the Speaker of the House of Commons.” This amendment would provide for Parliamentary oversight of the appointment of the “Independent person”. Government amendments 34 to 43.”
“Amendment 81, page 4, line 10, at end insert— “(7) Where a person has applied for a review of an information notice, the period mentioned in section 3(4)(a) is to be treated as beginning on the day after which the outcome of the review is notified to the person to whom the information notice was given.” Government amendments 25 to 29. Amendment 1, in clause 64, page 34, line 15, at end insert— “(1A) Prior to appointing an independent person, the Minister must consult the relevant committee of the House of Commons. (1B) For the purposes of subsection (1A), “the relevant committee” means a committee determined by the Speaker of the House of Commons.” This amendment would provide for Parliamentary oversight of the appointment of the “Independent person”. Government amendments 30, 31, 76, 75, 32 and 33.”
“Amendment 17, page 3, line 36, leave out “Minister” and insert “First Tier Tribunal”. Amendment 18, page 3, line 38, leave out “Minister” and insert “First Tier Tribunal”. Amendment 14, page 4, line 2, after “notice” insert “, including by extending the duration of the period mentioned in section 3(4)(a) where satisfied that the person is reasonably unable to comply with the requirement to provide the information within the time required by the notice”. Amendment 19, page 4, line 3, leave out “Minister” and insert “First Tier Tribunal”.”
“(3) Where the report finds or concludes that there were— (a) failings in Government oversight and other measures then in place to prevent fraud against public authorities, or (b) any action or inaction by the Government which enabled fraud against public authorities, the Minister must make a statement to the House of Commons acknowledging these findings and setting out actions planned to ensure any failings are not repeated.” Amendment 15, in clause 3, page 3, line 10, leave out “10” and insert “28.” Government amendments 23 and 24. Amendment 16, in clause 4, page 3, line 33, leave out “Minister” and insert “First Tier Tribunal”. Amendment 13, page 3, line 33, after “notice” insert “or of the duration of the period mentioned in section 3(4)(a)”. Amendment 80, page 3, line 34, leave out “7” and insert “28”.”
“(2) The report must include— (a) an account of fraudulent or erroneous payments made by or on behalf of public authorities, including but not limited to the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, (b) a review of how public procurement practices in place between March 2020 and December 2021, including— (i) the use of high priority and expedited contracting for suppliers, and (ii) the role of political appointments and personal connections in procurement decisions, may have contributed to fraud against public authorities, (c) the cost to the public purse of fraud against public authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and (d) an assessment of the adequacy of Government oversight and other measures then in place to prevent fraud against public authorities.”
“New clause 23— Report on public sector fraud during COVID-19 pandemic — “(1) The Minister for the Cabinet Office must, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay before Parliament a report evaluating the extent of public sector fraud that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“(1I) A person who commits an offence under this section is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or an unlimited fine.”” New clause 22— Impact of Act on people with protected characteristics — “The Secretary of State must, prior to making regulations under section 103 to bring into force any provision of this Act, lay before Parliament an assessment of the expected impact of the Act on people with protected characteristics who are in receipt of social security benefits.” This new clause would ensure any impact of the Bill on people with protected characteristics in receipt of social security benefits was examined prior to the Act’s implementation.”
“(1J) A person who commits an offence under this section is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or an unlimited fine.” (3) In section 112 (false representations for obtaining benefit etc), after subsection (1F) insert— “(1G) A person commits an offence if they— (a) encourage or assist another person to commit an offence under this section, or (b) provide guidance on how to commit an offence under this section. (1H) An offence under this section can be committed where the encouragement, assistance or guidance happens online.”
“(2) In section 111A (dishonest representation for obtaining benefit etc), after subsection (1G) insert— “(1H) A person commits an offence if they— (a) encourage or assist another person to commit an offence under this section, or (b) provide guidance on how to commit an offence under this section. (1I) An offence under this section can be committed where the encouragement, assistance or guidance happens online.”
“(3) The aims of the safeguards in subsection (2)(b) are— (a) to ensure that grounds for decision making can only be reasonable if they are the result of a process in which there has been meaningful human involvement by a human of adequate expertise to scrutinise any insights or recommendations made by automated systems, (b) to make clear that grounds cannot be reasonable if they are the result of an entirely automated process, and (c) to ensure that any information notice issued is accompanied by a statement— (i) setting out the reasonable grounds for suspicion that have been relied on, and (ii) confirming that the conclusion has been formed on the basis of human involvement.” New clause 21— Offence of encouraging or assisting others to commit fraud — “(1) The Social Security Administration Act 1992 is amended as follows.”
“(2) An Anti-Fraud and Error Technology Strategy published under this section must set out– (a) how the Government intends to use automated technologies or artificial intelligence to tackle fraud against public authorities and the making of erroneous payments by public authorities, and (b) a series of safeguards to provide for human oversight of decision making that meet the aims set out in subsection (3); (c) how rights of appeal will be protected; (d) a framework for privacy and data sharing.”
“(2) A first report must be published no later than 12 months after the passing of this Act with subsequent reports published at intervals of no more than 12 months.” New clause 14— Impact of Act on vulnerable customers — “(1) The Secretary of State must, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay before Parliament an assessment of the expected impact of the Act on vulnerable customers. (2) For the purposes of this section, “vulnerable customers” means someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to harm, particularly when a firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care.” New clause 15— Publication of an Anti-Fraud and Error Technology Strategy — “(1) The Secretary of State must, within six months of the passing of this Act, publish an Anti-Fraud and Error Technology Strategy.”
“(4) Where a liability order has been made against a person ("the liable person"), the Secretary of State may use the procedure in Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (taking control of goods) to recover the amount in respect of which the order was made, to the extent that it remains unpaid.” New clause 11— Publication of results of pilot schemes— “Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Secretary of State must publish the results of any pilot schemes run with banks to test the provisions in Chapter 1 of Part 2.” New clause 12— Report on cost implications for banks — “The Secretary of State must, within three months of the passing of this Act, publish a report on the expected cost implications of the provisions of this Act for banks.” New clause 13— Annual reporting of amounts recovered — “(1) The Secretary of State must publish an annual report detailing the amount of money which has been recovered under the provisions of this Act.”
“(2) Where the Secretary of State applies for a liability order, the magistrates’ court or (as the case may be) sheriff shall make the order if satisfied that the payments in question have become payable by the liable person and have not been paid. (3) The Secretary of State may make regulations in relation to England and Wales— (a) prescribing the procedure to be followed in dealing with an application by the Secretary of State for a liability order; (b) prescribing the form and contents of a liability order; and (c) providing that where a magistrates’ court has made a liability order, the person against whom it is made shall, during such time as the amount in respect of which the order was made remains wholly or partly unpaid, be under a duty to supply relevant information to the Secretary of State.”
“(2) The powers to be applied must include– (a) the power of arrest; (b) any other such powers that the Secretary of State considers appropriate. (3) Regulations made under this section shall be made by statutory instrument.” New clause 10— Liability orders — “(1) Where a person– (a) has been found guilty of an offence under section 1 or section 11 of the Fraud Act 2006, or the offence at common law of conspiracy to defraud, (b) that offence relates to fraud committed against a public authority, and (c) has not paid the required penalties or not made the required repayments, the Secretary of State must apply to a magistrates’ court or, in Scotland, to the sheriff for an order (“a liability order”) against the liable person.”
“(2) A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) is liable- (a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding the general limit in a magistrates’ court or a fine (or both); (b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years.” New clause 9— Application of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to investigations conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions — “(1) The Secretary of State must, within six months of the passing of this Act, introduce regulations for the purpose of applying certain powers of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, subject to such modifications as the order may specify, to investigations of offences conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions.”
“New clause 8— Offence of fraud against a public authority — “(1) A person who- (a) commits, (b) assists or conspires in the committal of, or (c) encourages the committal of, fraud against a public authority commits an offence.”
“(3) After subsection (1) insert— “(1A) The amount referred to in subsection (1) shall not include any overpayment that arose in consequence of an official error where the claimant or a person acting on the claimant’s behalf or any other person to whom the payment is made could not, at the time of receipt of the payment or of any notice relating to that payment, reasonably have been expected to realise that it was an overpayment.”” This new clause would provide that, where universal credit overpayments have been caused by official error, they can only be recovered where the claimant could reasonably have been expected to realise that there was an overpayment.”