Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was (1) the estimated total amount of fraud and error loss across all government departments, and (2) the breakdown of these losses by each department, in each of the last five years.

The Public Sector Fraud Authority uses annual detected fraud figures and fraud estimates from fraud measurement activity to estimate fraud loss across Government. Due to the nature of this work the estimate for fraud and error levels in the public sector are reported retrospectively. From these calculations we estimate that levels are between 0.5-5% of government expenditure. The Public Sector Fraud Authority estimates that for 2020-21 the levels of fraud against the public sector, including tax and welfare, were between £33-55bn.

This estimate excludes fraud and error within Covid-19 schemes as fraud measurement activity within these schemes is still ongoing. Some departments have published estimates. However, a full picture of fraud and error levels in COVID-19 schemes is not yet available.

Detected fraud figures by department are published annually within the Fraud Landscape Report, this includes 5 year trends for total detected, prevented and recovered fraud and error across government, outside of tax and welfare.

The table below shows a departmental breakdown of detected fraud and error over the last available five years, outside of tax and welfare. Figures for 2020-21 will be published shortly in the 2021 Annual Fraud Landscape report.

Detected Fraud and Error

*Figures for HMRC and DWP include internal fraud and error only. Tax and Welfare fraud figures are collected and reported separately by HMRC and DWP.