Business: Coronavirus

(asked on 1st February 2022) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions and correspondence his Department has had with the National Crime Agency on fraud in the coronavirus business support schemes in the last three months.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 4th February 2022

HMT officials regularly engage with the National Crime Agency to discuss shared policy interests, such as the response to fraud. This includes through the Economic Crime Strategic Board, through which the government, regulators, law enforcement, and industry discuss and drive forward the UK’s overall response to economic crime. The NCA and the Treasury are also members of a monthly cross-government Counter-Fraud Board on Bounce Back Loans.

The government also continues to work actively with the British Business Bank, lenders, and fraud authorities to recover loans obtained fraudulently. This work has been supported by the Cabinet Office Counter Fraud Function to better identify the level and types of fraud against the scheme.

We are working with enforcement bodies including the National Investigation Service to investigate the most serious cases of fraud and we have always been clear that anyone who defrauds the scheme is at risk of prosecution. The National Investigation Service have recovered £3.1 million so far.

The NCA is an operationally independent agency and has not been prevented from investigating frauds against the Bounce Back Loans scheme or any other Covid-19 support scheme.

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