Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Rutland Excerpts

Thursday 25th July 2024 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)]

1. What recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of fraud and error in Government departments and agencies.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

5. What recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of fraud and error in Government departments and agencies.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Pat McFadden)]

Government estimates of the amount of money lost to fraud and error vary hugely, in truth: the latest estimate has a range of between £40 billion and almost £60 billion, which is a huge range. The public rightly expect us to do all we can to minimise fraud in the use of public funds, which is one reason why my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced the establishment of a covid corruption commissioner, whose job it will be to track down as much as possible of the money lost to fraud during the pandemic. The Cabinet Office will work closely with the Chancellor on this to try to ensure best value for money for the public and, of course, crack down on fraud right across Government Departments and agencies.

[Tom Rutland]

Covid contract fraud has cost the public purse an estimated £7.6 billion, with the previous Government assigning contracts worth billions for useless personal protective equipment to those with close personal connections to Ministers through their so-called VIP lane. With the Chancellor announcing a new covid fraud commissioner this week, can the Minister please outline how his Department will work with the Treasury to support that commissioner, in order to ensure that this egregious waste of public money is rectified and the British taxpayer gets back what they are owed?

[Pat McFadden]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to draw attention to what happened during covid, when VIP lanes and dodgy contracts ended up burning through billions of pounds, sometimes for unusable equipment. We will do everything we can to recover money that has been lost, and my Department will work closely with the office of the covid corruption commissioner to oversee that work and try to ensure the best value possible for the taxpayer.