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.

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.