Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 21
Sixty-Ninth Report - Tackling fraud and corruption against government
Published 8 Sep 2023
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Tackling fraud and corruption against government All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Departments also only recover a minority of the fraud they detect. In 2020–21, departments had recovered £29 million out of the £243 million of detected fraud. Enforcement and recovery powers are also fragmented across government, which exacerbates the challenge government faces to recover fraud losses.69 We asked HM Treasury how much of the £21 billion estimated fraud over the pandemic it expected to recover. HM Treasury told us that DWP and HMRC will have their own specific targets, and the returns on their spending are scrutinised by the Office for Budget Responsibility at fiscal events. HM Treasury and Cabinet Office confirmed that government was not writing off any of the losses associated with fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic period. It was actually increasing its efforts to recover those losses, for example, through its £1 billion investment in counter-fraud capability, but it would not be reasonable to expect government to recover all of the losses.70 Local government
From: Public Accounts Committee, Sixty-Ninth Report - Tackling fraud and corruption against government (HC 1230), 8 September 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 November 2023 (deadline 8 November 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations on tackling fraud and corruption against government, but disagrees with the recommendation for a separate annual strategic intelligence report.
- On a strategic intelligence report, the government disagrees. The PSFA "will not publish a separate strategic intelligence report", and says it will not publish information that could increase the fraud threat by showing how attacks could be executed.
- It will continue to publish annual Fraud Landscape Reports and bulletins. It says separating fraud from error requires determining intent, which is "cost intensive", so this is left to the discretion of individual departments.
- The government agrees the PSFA should update the Committee in 12 months on the outcome of the next Workforce and Performance Review, with a target implementation date of September 2024.
- On a cross-government communications strategy, the government agrees, with a target implementation date of June 2024. A working group "will develop and maintain a cross-government communications plan".