Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
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.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
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.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the total value of fraudulent claims under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme; and how much and what proportion of those claims the Government has recovered as of 17 January 2024.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Information on His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs estimates regarding the rate of error and fraud for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the other COVID-19 support schemes administered by HMRC is available at the following link : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measuring-error-and-fraud-in-the-covid-19-schemes/error-and-fraud-in-the-covid-19-schemes-methodology-and-approach-an-update-for-2023
Information regarding HMRC’s compliance activity in the COVID-19 support schemes is available at the following link:
committees.parliament.uk/publications/42603/documents/211751/default/
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2023 to Question 4170 on Fraud: Coronavirus, what proportion of the recovered £88 million is designated as (a) fraud and (b) error.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The UK government is proud of its record in proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system and has invested over an extra £1bn in tackling fraud and error since Autumn 2021 across government. This includes the launch of the Public Sector Fraud Authority in August 2022 which builds on lessons learned in the management of fraud risk and loss in the pandemic.
The government’s ‘Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Annual Report 2022’ showed that at the end of March 2021 there had been £88.2m of fraud and error recovered within COVID-19 schemes (excluding HMRC-administered COVID-19 schemes and any fraud and error related to tax and welfare). Of this, £19.6m was reported by departments as fraud and £68.6m was reported as error. These figures only represent 2020-2021 data, since then, further funds have been recovered.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of how much (a) was lost from the public purse due to fraud during the covid-19 pandemic, (b) of that fraud has been recovered and (c) is irrecoverable.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
During the pandemic, the Government delivered an unprecedented package of economic support to preserve livelihoods and save businesses across the whole United Kingdom.
The Government is committed to transparency in its efforts to tackle fraud against the public sector. The UK is one of the few countries to publish data on fraud and error within the public sector in the Fraud Landscape Report. The Government will continue to be transparent and prioritise its efforts in detecting, preventing and recovering fraud associated with the pandemic.
The Fraud Landscape Report showed that in 2020/21, across government and outside of tax and welfare (so, excluding COVID-19 expenditure in HMRC and DWP), departments reported £88m of recovered fraud and error related to COVID-19.
Since 2021, we have invested in taking action on fraud, to bolster the prevention and recovery of fraud losses in welfare, tax and COVID Business Loans, and prosecute those who have defrauded the public purse - this included the establishment of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA).
Fraud is a hidden crime and the Government’s focus remains on detecting and recovering as much of it as is possible. That is done by deploying cutting edge tools supported by world leading expertise to find and recover as much fraud as possible.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) current and (b) former government ministers have been interviewed by the (i) National Crime Agency, (ii) Serious Fraud Office and (iii) National Investigation Service as part of investigations relating to covid-19 (A) procurement and (B) fraud as of 29 November 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This information is not held by the Cabinet Office. I can, however, reassure the Honourable Lady that the Government will always assist with any investigations these agencies may be undertaking.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the Public Sector Fraud Authority's most recent estimate of the amount of fraud associated with the Covid-19 pandemic which has been recovered as of 28 November 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The government continues to prioritise ongoing work to provide estimates of the value of detected and prevented fraud associated with the pandemic. The 2022 Fraud Landscape Report showed that in 2020/21, across government and outside of tax and welfare, the Fraud Landscape Report has reported £88m of recovered fraud and error related to COVID-19. However since then further funds have been recovered and further efforts to recover funds is ongoing. More uptodate figures will be published in due course.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the Public Sector Fraud Authority's most recent estimate of the value of fraud associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It was only right that the Government and local authorities stepped up to support the country in unprecedented times during the pandemic – saving businesses and the jobs they create.
The Government is committed to transparency in its efforts to tackle fraud against the public sector. The UK is one of the few countries to estimate fraud and error within the public sector and to openly publish this estimate. The Government also continues to prioritise ongoing work to provide estimates of the value of detected and prevented fraud associated with the pandemic. In 2021, the Government recovered a total of £88m from fraud and error relating to COVID-19 support schemes.
The 2022 Fraud Landscape Report showed that in 2020/21, across government, detected fraud amounted to £54m within COVID-19 specific schemes.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have been prosecuted for fraud relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as of 12 September 2023.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Ongoing criminal investigation activity by HMRC against the covid support schemes has been reported in HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2022-23, which can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023. This ongoing activity has yet to be concluded within the criminal justice system and is subject to those timescales.
As of 12 September 2023, there has been one prosecution resulting in a conviction for fraud related to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many fraud cases related to covid-19 are with the Crown Prosecution Service awaiting an outcome.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not have a central record showing the number of fraud cases relating to Covid-19 currently awaiting an outcome. To obtain the data would require manually reviewing CPS case records at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an estimate of the total cost of (a) fraud and (b) error arising from (i) purchases of personal protective equipment, (ii) NHS Test and Trace, (iii) Government business support schemes, (iv) the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, (v) the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and (vi) other aspects of the Government's response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), established in August 2022, works with government departments and public bodies to understand and reduce the impact of fraud against the public sector.
Accounting Officers have primary responsibility for managing the risk of fraud in their department. They are accountable for understanding and managing the risk of fraud within the schemes and services they are responsible for delivering. As such, the latest estimates for potential fraud and error loss in the government’s Covid-19 support schemes can be found in departments’ Annual Reports and Accounts, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-reports-and-accounts-for-central-government-departments.
The latest information on post-event assurance for Test and Trace and PPE Procurement can be found within the Department for Health and Social Care's Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 (paragraphs 761 – 774);
Detail of The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s central estimate for estimated levels of fraud and error loss in the Bounce Back Loan Scheme can be found within their Annual Report and Accounts; and
The latest information on error and fraud from HM Revenue & Customs can be found within HMRC’s Error and Fraud in Covid-19 Schemes publication.