Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025: Codes of Practice
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)
I, alongside Public Sector Fraud Authority Ministers, would like to advise the House that today the Government have launched two public consultations on the codes of practice associated with the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025. One is led by the Department for Work and Pensions and the other by the PSFA. These will consult on the following codes:
Public Sector Fraud Authority: Civil penalties.
Department for Work and Pensions: Eligibility verification notices, recovery of debt via direct deduction order and disqualification from driving and obtaining information to support fraud investigations in the welfare system.
The 2025 Act includes a statutory obligation for the PSFA to issue a code of practice on the administration of civil penalties, and for DWP to publicly consult on the codes for the eligibility verification measure and debt recovery measures before the powers are used for the first time. In terms of the code relating to the information gathering powers, the Secretary of State Work and Pensions similarly has a duty to consider representations on the draft code under section 3 of the Social Security Fraud Act 2001.
As we made clear through the passage of the Act, these codes are important safeguards that will support effective and proportionate application of these powers. They are necessary pieces of departmental guidance and will guide the operation and management of the new powers by outlining, in more detail, how the powers taken through this Act should be delivered, reflecting the newly passed legislation.
The powers granted through the Act will allow the Department to better identify, prevent and deter social security fraud and error and enable the better recovery of debt owed to the taxpayer. The launch of today’s consultations is another step towards delivering the Government’s manifesto commitment to safeguard taxpayers’ money and demonstrates that this Government will not tolerate fraud or waste in public services.
This Government are committed to full and thorough consultations to allow input from a broad range of perspectives, which will help to inform the final versions of the codes. Consequently, the consultations on these codes will take place over 12 weeks. This means that the code for each measure will be published ahead of the relevant measures commencing implementation.
During the passage of the Act, a statement was made during Committee in the House of Commons that the DWP codes would be laid in Parliament for a minimum of 40 sitting days prior to formal publication. Considering the extensive engagement that our officials had with stakeholders throughout the passage of the Act, which will continue through these consultations and beyond, we no longer believe that this is necessary.
In addition, we have made previous draft codes available on request to parliamentarians since 23 May 2025. This has provided ample opportunity for Members to review the draft codes, and Members will be able to consider these further during the consultation period. This approach will allow us to begin the important work of exercising these powers sooner to deliver the estimated benefits of £1.5 billion by 2029-30, as scored by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
The consultations will launch today, Monday 8 December 2025, and run until Friday 27 February 2026. These consultations can be found on www.gov.uk. The codes will be officially laid once the consultation, formal response and final versions are complete.
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