Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
16
As some COVID-19 business support schemes have increasingly become part of business as usual, the...
Conclusion
As some COVID-19 business support schemes have increasingly become part of business as usual, the Department told us that, for example in relation to grants distributed by local authorities, its systems and methods are now approaching maturity. It considers it has improved its guidance to local authorities and refined its approach to identifying fraud and error in these grant schemes.59 However, lessons learnt seem to have been largely actions in pursuit of reducing shortcomings in existing schemes rather than learning wider lessons that could be applied to limit fraud and error in future schemes. The ICAEW recommends that the government establishes a standard framework for assuring grants delivered through local authorities, providing clarity to the respective reporting roles of central and local government, as well as measures to be used to detect and prevent fraud and error.60
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2022 5.2 The department continues to refine its estimates of the levels of fraud and error across its COVID-19 business support schemes, including the COVID-19 loan schemes and grants. 5.3 The department will publish revised estimates for Cohort 1 grants and first estimates for the subsequent schemes in its 2021-22 annual report and accounts due to be published in Autumn 2022. See paragraph 1.4 above. 5.4 As part of the assurance work, the department will write to local authorities with the findings and asking them were relevant to start the debt recovery process. 5.5 The COVID-19 loan schemes are delegated schemes, and primary responsibility for detection, investigation and recovery of fraud sits with lenders, in line with their usual processes. The Cabinet Office's fraud analytics programme aids lenders in this process by improving the information available to them on suspected fraud, which they can use to support their internal investigations and pursue recoveries. 5.6 Meanwhile, the department is working with NATIS, the Insolvency Service and other law enforcement agencies to pursue investigations into fraud in the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). At the 2022 Spring Statement, the department secured additional funding for NATIS and the British Business Bank to target abuse of BBLS.