Welfare, Rural and Health Division
On 1 April 2012, the prosecution function of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) merged with the CPS, and those staff responsible for prosecutions within DWP, who had formed the DWP Prosecution Division (DWP PD), became CPS staff.
They joined the Welfare, Rural and Health Division (WRHD), (headed by Simon Clements) which was formed in 2011 when colleagues from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) joined the CPS.
The merger was designed to provide greater prosecutorial resilience and increased efficiency, delivering an enhanced prosecution service for the public, whilst safeguarding the high quality work previously done by DWP PD.
As DWP PD had done until April 2012, the Welfare, Rural and Health Division (WRHD) are responsible from April 2012 for prosecuting certain types of crime on behalf of the DWP, the Department of Health and some Local Authorities. In 2011-12 DWP PD were responsible for prosecuting a total of over 11,000 cases.
Prosecutions on behalf of Fraud Investigation Services (FIS)
The vast majority of these cases (98%) are investigated by the DWP’s internal investigation department: FIS. FIS remain within DWP.
The cases FIS deal with are primarily concerned with benefit fraud and the vast majority are prosecuted in the magistrates’ courts. Benefit fraud is when someone is dishonest in order to receive benefit or knowingly fails to report a change in their circumstances. This includes, for example, people who:
- do not report they are now living with a partner or that their partner has started work
- do not report they are receiving other benefits
- do not declare their savings or do not declare the right amount of savings
- are claiming for children who have left home
- do not report they have started work, or started to earn money
- do not report they have inherited money
- do not report they are going abroad, living abroad, or have changed address.
Other examples of crime that FIS investigate include frauds related to grants (e.g. Crisis loans), the access to work scheme, maternity and other allowance fraud, identity fraud (e.g. false or hijacked identity).
Prosecutions on behalf of the Department of Health
The remaining 2% of cases prosecuted are on behalf of the Department of Health (DH) (often fraud offences) and brought forward by NHS Protect or the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) (typically regulatory offences).
Prosecutions on behalf of Local Authorities
Other cases are brought forward for prosecution by Local Authorities (around 160) which have signed Service Level Agreements with DWP PD, and now with the CPS. Local Authorities investigate benefit fraud, either alongside FIS investigators (known as ‘joint working’), or independently.
They administer Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and their prosecutions encompass one or both of these benefits, possibly in conjunction with DWP main stream benefits. The prosecutions which PD have dealt with previously, and which the CPS will now be responsible for, are limited to benefit fraud abuses and do not include other prosecutions that a Local Authority would, such as dog fouling, planning abuses and child care neglect.
The Environment, Food and Farming Unit
The Environment, Food and Farming Unit was part of WRHD before the merger with the DWP PD. The Unit continues to be responsible for prosecuting cases previously dealt with by Defra. These cases are prosecuted on behalf of a number of different organisations and deal with a range of crimes. These include: the illegal use and sale of veterinary medicines, offences against fish and shellfish health regulations, environmental damage, animal welfare crimes, illegal working practices in the food and agriculture industries, and crimes related to livestock registration and food labelling.
If you have any queries about the work of Welfare, Rural and Health Division please contact Raj Bajhia via email Rajvinder.bahia@cps.gsi.gov.uk or telephone 0203 357 0857.
