Member

My hon. Friend the Member for Poole and my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington alluded to the risk of a Horizon-type event. I want to assure the House of a very clear difference. The Horizon scandal emerged because evidence was taken from a single source. That will not be the case here. We will receive flagged information from banks of a potential breach of eligibility criteria. However, that will not be a sufficient source of evidence to prove fraud. That will trigger a look at the account, and if there is not an obvious reason why somebody is potentially in breach of eligibility criteria, a human investigation will be triggered that looks at a range of sources of evidence to establish the reason. Only then would there be any suggestion that fraud or error has occurred. There can be legitimate reasons for somebody having an amount of capital above that allowed by their benefit. For instance, if somebody on universal credit received a payment of more than £16,000, which is the maximum amount of capital allowed, as a result of the Horizon scandal or the infected blood scandal, they would be exempt. I understand the concerns, but I think this is distinct from the Horizon scandal.