Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they paid out to Bounce Back Loan Scheme lending banks under the government-backed guarantee between 1 January 2022 and 30 April; and what percentage of this figure was attributed to fraud.

Data relating to settled claims and suspected fraud within the Bounce Back Loan Scheme is captured on a cumulative basis.

As of 31 March 2022, c.£351 million in settled claims on the scheme guarantee have been paid to lenders, of which c.£72 million [20%] have a suspected fraud marker as reported by lenders to the British Business Bank.

The lenders under the Scheme are not law enforcement agencies, it is the courts who determine whether or not a fraud has been committed. These statistics are an indicator of levels of suspected fraud rather than actual, proven levels.