I am pleased to inform the House that the Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner’s independent review, “Pursuing Recoveries and Preventing Reoccurrence”, CP 1462, has been laid in Parliament today.
The commissioner, Tom Hayhoe, was appointed in December 2024 to lead this important work over the course of this year. During his time in post, the commissioner has worked across Government, drawing on expertise in the Public Sector Fraud Authority, the Government Commercial Function, the Government Debt Management Function, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Business and Trade and others, to ensure that the Government are recouping public money lost in pandemic-related fraud and from contracts which have not been delivered. The commissioner collaborated with a wide range of experts across sectors to test his hypotheses and findings, and considered lessons learnt and the experiences of key international partners.
The commissioner’s report sets out that £10.91 billion[1] was lost to fraud and error from covid-19 spending, of which £1.79 billion has been recovered. Failed pandemic-era PPE contracts cost the British taxpayer £1.4 billion, and over £1.9 billion[2] of bounce back loans have been flagged as suspected fraud to the British Business Bank.
The commissioner finds that the previous Government’s over-ordering of personal protective equipment and delays in quality checking mean that £762 million is unlikely to ever be recovered, with substandard PPE—gowns, masks and visors—remaining uninspected for up to two years, preventing recovery of public money. Litigation remains active or in prospect for eight contracts. DHSC was successful in action against PPE MedPro and efforts continue to recover the £122 million settlement ordered by the High Court.
Covid fraud under the previous Government was not confined to the procurement of PPE but included the exploitation of inadequate checks for loans and grants. Following the commissioner’s recommendations, the Government launched a three-month voluntary repayment window for ineligible support scheme funds[3] and the covid fraud reporting site for anonymous fraud reporting. This voluntary scheme encourages repayments ahead of the Government exercising comprehensive powers under the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 to investigate and recover fraud, which extends the limitation period for covid cases for a further six years.
The Government are estimated to have delivered nearly £400 million of covid fraud benefits to date and will relentlessly pursue more cases through the new Public Authorities Fraud Investigation and Enforcement Service and further action on fraudulent covid loans, including bounce back loans, confirmed in the recent Budget.[4]
The commissioner finds there is more to do to recover fraud and error from the previous Government’s covid-19 spending, with recommendations for eight Government Departments, including DHSC, DBT and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Government will now carefully consider all recommendations made in the report, working at pace to provide a full response early next year.
Covid fraud and corruption is an appalling financial scandal which has cost UK taxpayers dearly. I would like to thank Tom Hayhoe for his tireless efforts to chase down fraud, so that public money can be used as intended on public services like hospitals and schools. This Government will continue to relentlessly pursue covid-19 fraud to retrieve taxpayers’ money, hold those responsible to account and ensure such failures can never be repeated.
[1] Public Sector Fraud Authority estimate of fraud and error in covid schemes.
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