Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 25
34th Report - Department for Business and Trade Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24
Published 25 Jun 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Work of the Department for Business and Trade All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
As at 31 March 2024, there remained 1.03 million loans outstanding, to a value of £17.8 billion.41 The Department estimates that total losses to the taxpayer due to fraud in the scheme will be at least £1.9 billion over its lifetime.42 For the purposes of fraud investigation, the Department grouped suspected fraudulent loans into tiers. The largest cases are passed to the National Investigation Service (NATIS), a fraud investigation service provided by Thurrock Council. Other cases were left to commercial lenders to investigate, who the Department regard to be experts in this field.43 39 The Insolvency Service, Factsheet: Bounce Back Loans, March 2022 40 C&AG’s Report, Bounce Back Loan Scheme: an update, Session 2021–22, HC 861, 3 December 2021, pp 5-8 41 DBT, COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes performance data as at 31 March 2024, August 2024 42 DBT ARA 2023 to 2024, p 105 43 C&AG’s Report, Bounce Back Loan Scheme: an update, Session 2021–22, HC 861, 3 December 2021, p 11 15 Recovery of fraud losses
From: Public Accounts Committee, 34th Report - Department for Business and Trade Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 (HC 818), 25 June 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-fourth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 25 August 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-fourth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations on the Department for Business and Trade's 2023-24 accounts, setting target implementation dates between September 2025 and August 2026.
- On the Horizon schemes, the department is finalising letters to remaining eligible Horizon Shortfall Scheme claimants, "expected to be implemented by September 2025". It will also write to those yet to register for redress under the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme, aiming to complete this "by the end of September 2025".
- Overturned Convictions claims transferred to the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme from 3 June 2025. The department confirms the same principles will apply, "ensuring no OC claimant is disadvantaged", and says it will publish further guidance by the end of Summer 2025.
- On Post Office funding, the department will write to the Committee in Autumn 2025. It will also give a formal notification to the Committee "when the Letter of Comfort to the Post Office Limited is issued", with a Winter 2025 target date.
- On Bounce Back Loan fraud, the department will submit written findings of a Government Internal Audit Agency audit "before the end of August 2026". It will write to the Committee in one year on Insolvency Service performance, providing information "that is obtainable".