Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
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Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
To ask His Majesty’s Government what action they have taken regarding the recommendations in Pursuing Recoveries and Preventing Reoccurrence: Final Report of the Covid Counter Fraud Commissioner, published on 9 December 2025.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Livermore) (Lab)
My Lords, on 23 June, I laid the Government’s response to the Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner’s report before this House setting out our plan to pursue those who defrauded the state during a national emergency, to put money stolen by fraudsters back into the public services and to tighten our counter-fraud controls to make sure that this scale of fraud can never happen again.
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that reply, but does he not think it strange that Peter Murrell is in jail for embezzlement of £400,000 whereas not one person responsible for £10 billion of fraud has been charged, let alone convicted? Will the Government speed up their action to use legal methods against these people and recover the money, which, I am sure my noble friend will agree, will help balance his books?
Lord Livermore (Lab)
I am very grateful to my noble friend for his question and his continued determination to see justice in this matter, which I share. Covid fraud and corruption is an appalling financial scandal that has cost UK taxpayers dearly. I thank the commissioner, Tom Hayhoe, for his tireless efforts to chase down fraud so that public money can be used as intended on public services such as hospitals and schools, as my noble friend said. The Government will continue relentlessly to pursue Covid fraud to retrieve taxpayers’ money, to hold those responsible to account and to ensure that such failures can never be repeated. In his report, the commissioner made 22 separate recommendations. The Government have fully accepted 18 and partially accepted the remaining four. The Treasury will now establish a Minister-chaired scrutiny panel to review the implementation of the recommendations every six months for at least the next two years.