PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Fraud (11 December 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the cost of (a) fraud and (b) financial error in (i) his Department, (ii) its executive agencies and (iii) its non-departmental public bodies in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Lucy Powell (Labour)

The estimated annual cost of fraud and financial error in each of the last five years in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and its forty six partner organisations is estimated to be about £50-100m. This represents some 0.5% of total annual BIS spending on average.

Nearly all of this estimated figure relates to the error rate (made by applicants and officials) on student support, although that has declined in successive years from over 1% to some 0.5% in the latest year (2013-14) for which data is available.

The Department and all its partner organisations are now working closely with each other and with other Departments, led by the Cabinet Office, and other organisations inside and outside central government to improve the prevention, detection, measurement and early recovery of losses from fraud and error.

I have asked Chief Executives of the Executive Agencies to respond directly to the Hon Member. This information is not held by BIS in respect of non-Departmental Public Bodies.

Answered by:
Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat)
17 December 2014