Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, in the context of his Department's National Fraud Initiative, what estimate his Department has made or commissioned of the total financial cost of fraud in the UK against (a) individuals, (b) businesses and (c) the Government in (i) financial year 2020-21, (ii) calendar year 2021 and (iii) financial year 2021-22; and if he will make a statement.

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) does not enable government to estimate the total financial cost of fraud in the UK as it only targets a subset of fraud risks and organisations. In financial years 20/21 and 21/22 (the last 2 year NFI programme cycle) NFI reported savings for government of £384m and £32m for the private sector. However, this only represents the fraud prevented and detected as a result of the NFI.

Government does not have the breakdown of the cost of fraud as requested. However, total fraud in the public sector is estimated to be a minimum of £29 billion per year (pre COVID-19).