Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Accepted
DBT reconsiders local authority recovery incentives and commissions review on irregular payments.
Conclusion
Despite these arguments, DBT and HM Treasury also sought to reassure us that the government was serious about pursuing fraud.23 When pressed by us, DBT said it would reconsider the possibility of allowing local authorities to keep a proportion of 14 Qq 32, 36 15 C&AG’s Report, para 2.21 16 Qq 33–37 17 Q 27 18 C&AG’s Report, para 2.16 and Appendix One 19 Qq 13–14, 58, 75 20 Q 29 21 Qq 15, 28, 31 22 Q 19, 21, 28, 65–66 23 Q 67, 76 Local authority administered COVID support schemes in England 11 the payments they recover from fraudsters.24 DBT also informed us in the session and a subsequent letter that Karina McTeague, a non-executive director on DBT’s departmental board, will be reviewing what more can be done to recover irregular payments ”over the next few months”.25 Knowledge of businesses and local authorities
Government Response Summary
The government has accepted the finding, stating it has re-contacted all local authorities, streamlined recovery processes, introduced a pilot digital tool for viability assessment, and is fast-tracking fraud referrals for litigation. The department is also quantifying expected recoverable payments and costs with local authorities.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2023 2.2 The planned non-executive directors (NED) review reported to the Committee has now been undertaken by the Chair of Department for Business and Trade (the department’s) Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. The review was undertaken during the period June through early September 2023 with findings now presented to the Permanent Secretary. 2.3 The review identified opportunities to improve recovery of irregular payments overall, including fraud payments, and improve value for money, with the following work underway to implement recommendations: • all local authorities have been re-contacted to request engagement, increasing the volume and accelerating the flow of irregular payments cases; • recovery processes have been streamlined with appropriately deployed skills and new resource allocated; • a pilot digital tool has been introduced to help assess viability of recovery from grant recipient businesses, ensuring recovery effort is focused on recoverable debt; and • fast-tracking referrals of actual and suspected fraud payments for litigation is ongoing. 2.4 The department is also working with local authorities to quantify the value of irregular payments that might reasonably be expected to be recovered and the associated cost of recovery.