Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has met the (a) Taxpayer Protection Taskforce or (b) National Crime Agency to discuss fraud in the covid-19 support schemes since his appointment as Chancellor.

Treasury Ministers and officials regularly engage with the National Crime Agency and Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to discuss shared policy interests, such as the response to fraud.

The Government has invested over £100 million in the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to combat fraud on the HMRC Covid-19 schemes, one of the largest and quickest responses to a fraud risk by HMRC.

In 2021-22 the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce prevented more than £350 million from being lost through error and fraud in the COVID-19 financial support schemes. Overall, since the start of the schemes, the amount of money either recovered or blocked from being paid out totals more than £1.2 billion, with compliance activity still ongoing.