Universal Credit

Lord McKenzie of Luton Excerpts

Wednesday 21st December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, basically our categorisation in the latest plan is that urgent actions are still required. We are tending towards the problems appearing to be manageable with the actions in hand. That is the position that we are in, which will probably be no surprise at this stage in the project.

[Lord McKenzie of Luton]

My Lords, can the Minister confirm that the major projects review to which he has referred encompasses not only the universal credit component but the HMRC RTI component, which is a vital part, as the noble Lord has explained? What further assurances can he give us that continuing HMRC job cuts will not deflect progress, especially given this week’s news from the Public Accounts Committee about the need to deploy resources for urgent action to resolve uncollected tax of £25 billion from large companies?

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, there are two processes: the assurance of the RTI programme and that of the universal credit programme. The RTI programme went through its latest assurance rather earlier than the UC assurance process, which was reviewed between 9 and 11 November. The review said that the engagement between the DWP and HMRC represented an exemplar of how these things should be done. I am looking through this project very closely, as noble Lords can imagine, and one area that I am pretty confident about is that the relationship between these two departments is right and working well.