By Sean Coughlan

The education and skills select committee, which is investigating a multi-million pound training fraud scandal, has itself used the services of Capita, a company scrutinised by the inquiry.

The individual learning accounts (ILAs), administered by Capita, were scrapped last year after what a trading standards officer described as a "feeding frenzy of fraud".

And MPs on the select committee examining the collapse of the scheme have questioned the security of Capita's computer systems.

But recruitment for support staff to the education select committee has itself been handled by Capita's public recruitment company, Capita RAS.

Candidates considering applying for a post of committee specialist last September were directed to get an application form from Capita RAS, which was acting as the contracted-out recruitment agency.

A Capita spokesperson emphasised that different parts of the company worked separately - and that there was no connection with Capita representatives called before the committee investigating ILA fraud.

And an official for the all-party House of Commons committee said that such recruitment agency contracts were not a matter for the committee.

The committee has been investigating what could prove one of the largest ever frauds involving education in the United Kingdom.

Doorstep con-men

And this has included examining the role of Capita, which was paid over �50m to run the scheme.

Doorstep con-men, organised gangs of fraudsters and high-tech computer criminals have all been claimed as contributing to the theft of public funds.

Simon Cripwell, of Warwickshire Trading Standards officer, has described a "feeding frenzy of fraud", including the fraudulent use of people's names and the supply of inadequate training materials.

The education secretary closed down the scheme in November 21, after the discovery that criminals were selling thousands of ILA account numbers.

The widespread allegations of fraud are being investigated by nine separate police forces - which have so far led to 44 arrests and one conviction.

Deception

But MPs are trying to uncover how the fraud was allowed to continue so long, before the scheme was closed.

If all of those obtaining training subsidies were genuine, then 2.6 million adults would have signed up for an ILA - or more than one in 20 of the adult population.

The rate of people signing up for ILAs was also remarkable, reaching over 10,000 people a day - a figure which again raises questions of widespread deception.

There have been over 18,000 individual complaints about the scheme, including many from people who have had their names or accounts dishonestly used.

According to a memorandum from the Department for Education and Skills, total spending on ILAs by January 2002 had reached �268.8m.

Capita is a highly successful company which enjoys considerable official confidence.

As well as the ILA deal it has contracts with, among others, the National Criminal Intelligence Service and the Criminal Records Bureau, and many education authorities - its systems are the backbone of the electronic pupil census.