Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justin Madders and Sarah Edwards

Thursday 29th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

13. What recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of procurement fraud during the covid-19 pandemic.

[Sarah Edwards (Tamworth) (Lab)]

15. What recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of procurement fraud during the covid-19 pandemic.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

The Government’s “Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Annual Report 2022” includes data from the first year of the Government’s response to the pandemic. The report suggests that in 2020-21, Government Departments and arm’s length bodies reported a total of £124.6 million of detected procurement fraud. The same report showed that at the end of March 2021, some £88.2 million of fraud and error had been recovered within covid-19 schemes. Since then, crucially, further funds have been recovered and the Government will continue to update the House as fresh data becomes available.