Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by her Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government is proud of its record in proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system. We have established the dedicated Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In its first year it delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.
The PSFA produces a Fraud Landscape Report. This provides data on fraud and error detection, loss and recoveries in central government, outside of the tax and welfare system. The 2020/21 Report was published in March 2023.
Due to the recent Machinery of Government changes, the Department for Business and Trade have not yet published any fraud and error estimates.
The latest published figures available for the Department for International Trade are available in the 2022 Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Annual Report.
The latest Government figures made available in the BEIS Annual Report and Accounts (2022/2023), for all BEIS activities, indicated that estimated expected losses due to fraud and error within the Bounce Back Loan Scheme will be £1.74bn. There are not material levels of fraud and error within the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme or the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Other losses include £4 million in relation to 2 suspected fraudulent payments within the Future Fund Scheme.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what reports and guidance her Department and its predecessor Department has produced in the last three years; and how much was spent on their (a) printing and (b) distribution.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Reports and guidance that the Department has published can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what guidance her Department issues on the use of WhatsApp.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
All departments in central government, including arms lengths bodies apply the published guidance: Using non-corporate communication channels (e.g. WhatsApp, private email, SMS) for government business). This was published by the Cabinet Office in March 2023.
It applies to all individuals in central government (ministers, special advisers, officials, contractors, non-executive board members and independent experts advising ministers). The Department for Business and Trade uses the central guidance and has applied it since March 2023.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by her Department and predecessor Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Opposition Chief Whip (Commons)
The Government is proud of its record in proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system. We have established the dedicated Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In its first year it delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.
The PSFA produces a Fraud Landscape Report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-government-fraud-landsca pe-annual-report-2022.) This provides data on fraud and error detection, loss and recoveries in central government, outside of the tax and welfare system. The 2020/21 Report was published in March 2023.
DCMS does not annually estimate the level of fraud and error across all its expenditure, instead focusing assurance and measurement activity on higher risk and higher value areas.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what reports and guidance her Department and its predecessor Department has produced in the last three years; and how much was spent on their (a) printing and (b) distribution.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department. Reports and guidance that the Department has published can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by her (a) her Department and (b) the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government proactively investigates and prevents fraud in the system. We have established the dedicated Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In its first year it delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.
Due to the Machinery of Government changes, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has not yet produced fraud and error estimates but this will be published in the 23/24 annual report and accounts.
The latest Government figures for the former department BEIS can be found in the BEIS Annual Report and Accounts (2022/2023).
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what reports and guidance his Department and has produced in the last three years; and how much was spent on their (a) printing and (b) distribution.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department. Reports and guidance that the Department has published can be found on gov.uk. Examples include the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cabinet-office-annual-reports-and-accounts), Strengthening Ethics and Integrity in Central Government (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strengthening-ethics-and-integrity-in-central-government) and policy papers such as the Disability Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-action-plan).
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much funding her Department and its predecessor Department (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on advertising in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Department buys advertising media through its media buying agency Omnicom Media Group UK Ltd. Advertising is used to promote investment and UK exports.
The Department’s general ledger records spend with Omnicom Media Group for the last three years for which figures are available as follows:
2020/21: £15,102,407.21
2021/22: £11,890,853.20
2022/23: £13,124,598.26
Advertising is part of the Department’s wider marketing strategy. Budgeting is carried out at the marketing category level, so no records are held on sums specifically budgeted for advertising.
These figures relate to the Department’s predecessor department, the Department for International Trade.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding (a) her Department and (b) its predecessor Department has (i) budgeted for and (ii) spent on advertising in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The department spent the following in each of the last three financial years:
| Financial year 2020/21 | Financial year 2021/22 | Financial year 2022/23 |
Actual spend | £259,634.17 | £666,395.66 | £253,813.31 |
We are unable to provide budget figures as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not budget in-year at such a granular level.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding his Department (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on advertising in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Cabinet Office spent the following on advertising in the last three financial years:
20/21: £376,029,723.21
21/22: £168,730,321.96
22/23: £27,485,611.31
Detail on this and other spending is routinely published by the Cabinet Office on GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cabinet-office-spend-data
Advertising spend in 20/21 and 21/22 was considerably higher due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Cabinet Office played a leading role in providing the public with information about the Pandemic. Increased advertising was essential to doing this and keeping the country safe.
The Cabinet Office budgets for advertising and other public relations activity is set in order to provide flexibility to the Cabinet Office to deal appropriately with what are often unforeseen events. This has been a long standing budgetary good practice under successive administrations.
The overall budget for Marketing and Media for the years in question are set out below:
20/21: £558,297,000
21/22: £242,177,000
22/23: £39,501,000
Work on advertising is primarily carried out by communications staff employed by departments and like all areas of government spending, costs are reviewed regularly to ensure value for money.