Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to HM Treasury: 2023 COVID-19 Cost Tracker update, published 20 July 2023, whether they will provide a breakdown of the £258 million estimated lifetime cost of the administration of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme, Recovery Loan Scheme and the Future Fund (ID421), including how much of this expenditure has been incurred to date, and how they expect the remaining expenditure to be allocated.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the original £258 million estimated lifetime cost of the administration of the Covid Support Schemes. This figure was previously provided by former BEIS prior to 2023 Machinery of Government changes. An assessment of the breakdown would require exceeding the advisory cost limit or “disproportionate cost threshold” for the Department. As a result, it is also not possible to provide an estimate of the expenditure occurred to date, and the expected remaining expenditure to be allocated, based on previous modelling.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what total quantified estimate they have made of fraud and error in the Culture Recovery Fund; what methodology, including statistical sampling or independent audit verification, they used to calculate that estimate; and how that methodology has evolved since the start of the fund.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
While the department has recently updated data on detected fraud and error, there is no overall quantified estimate of total (detected and undetected) fraud and error for the CRF.
For the core grant programmes delivered by Arts Council England, British Film Institute, and National Lottery Heritage Fund, and DCMS’s loans programme: fraud risk assessment, due diligence, upfront eligibility verification and post award sampling of grants took place across the Fund. This was either conducted or reviewed by independent auditors, however, the methodologies were not all based on statistical sampling so can not be brought together.
The total fraud and error detected across the CRF programmes is £12.9 million, consisting mainly of dual funding with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and breaches of terms and conditions. Of this, £10.3 million has been recovered.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the fraud and error of the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme; what processes are in place to identify, quantify and mitigate fraud and error in that scheme; and how much has been recovered as a result of those processes as of the most recent date available.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
External auditors were appointed to review the level of fraud and error in the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, which ran between October 2020 and April 2022 under the previous Government. This was an indemnity scheme with robust checks at application and claims stages by the scheme administrator and loss adjusters.
The evaluation found an error rate of less than 1%, and did not identify any fraud. The supplier concluded that the scheme had strong governance controls in place reducing the risk of fraud, and the rate of error was within expectations, particularly in the context of a pandemic where there is a need to prioritise speed and financial support to organisations. Errors were reviewed by the administrator and corrected where appropriate within the terms of the scheme, with £2240 recovered accounting for the majority of the error rate.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the transparency data COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes repayment data: March 2025, published on 6 June, what is the total fraud loss rate as a percentage of total lending for each of the COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes; and how those rates compare to the amounts flagged as suspected fraud by lenders.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The total fraud loss rate (by value) as a percentage of total lending for each of the COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes:
Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS): 3.36%
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS): 0.09%
Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS): 0% (none)
Total flagged as suspected fraud by lenders (by value) as a percentage of total lending for each of the COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes:
BBLS: 4.05%
CBILS: 0.22%
CLBILS: 0% (none)
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the guidance List of Public Bodies for Review in 2023/24, updated on 25 April 2024, whether a reviewer has been appointed for the review of the British Business Bank; and if so, who is that reviewer, what are the terms of reference for that review, and what is the current status of that review.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Under the Cabinet Office review framework, a self-assessment was completed by the Bank and reviewed by the Department for Business and Trade. This did not require a reviewer to be appointed nor specific terms of reference (beyond the self-assessment guidance). The broader Public Bodies Review Programme concluded on 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish a list of all accredited national statistics produced by departments about fraud and error in public expenditure, including precise titles, responsible departments, publication frequencies, and most recent dates of publication.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to transparency in its efforts to tackle fraud and error against the public sector.
Accredited national statistics are maintained by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), which provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK. The OSR publishes a comprehensive list of all official statistics that they have independently reviewed and accredited, including levels of total fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales.
The Public Sector Fraud Authority publishes data in relation to public sector fraud and error through its Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Report. The most recent Report, covering the period of 2021-22, set out levels of detected, prevented and recovered fraud and error, as reported by Departments and public bodies. The next Fraud Landscape Report will be published in Autumn 2025, and will cover two reporting years of 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Furthermore, the National Audit Office produced an ‘Overview of the impact of fraud and error on public funds’ in November 2024 which sets out the total impact of fraud and error on public funds for 2023-24. This overview draws on publicly available sources, including the annual report and accounts of government bodies which are publicly available on GOV.UK
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the British Bank Business last underwent a board effectiveness review, and whether they will place a copy of that review in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The British Business Bank reviews its board in accordance with the Cabinet Office guidance on Board Effectiveness Reviews, which includes an annual review that is externally facilitated every three years. The findings are included in BBB's Annual Report and Accounts, with a copy placed in the Library of the House. The most recent review was carried out in March 2025 and will be reported in BBB's 2025 Annual Report and Accounts, due for publication later in 2025.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the 1.1 million trees planted in round 1 of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund have survived, what monitoring processes are in place to track the survival rate, and what estimate they have made of the cost per surviving tree.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF) was an £80 million fund over two rounds to support nature recovery and conservation across England between 2020 and 2023. It was developed by the last government in response to COVID-19 and administered on behalf of Defra by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). Comprehensive independent evaluation reports for both rounds are available on the NLHF website.
GRCF projects were not required to undergo independent auditing or verification of outcomes. NLHF actively monitored all projects in delivery through quarterly reporting procedures, including meetings, site visits and photographic evidence. Grantees were required to undertake a project evaluation, commissioning external independent evaluation providers in most cases.
NLHF commissioned a separate independent programme level evaluation report for each round of GRCF. No instances of discrepancies or inflated reporting by grant recipients were identified.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to HM Treasury: 2023 COVID-19 Cost Tracker update, published 20 July 2023, what is the current status of the measure 'last resort business interventions' (ID31); whether the £30 million loan issued to Celsa Steel (UK) under that measure has been fully repaid, partially repaid, written off, or otherwise resolved; and what is the final outturn lifetime cost of that intervention.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I can confirm that the £30m loan to Celsa Steel UK was fully repaid in 2023 with interest and in line with the Government’s terms and conditions. A written ministerial statement was made to Parliament on 23 June 2023 on the matter: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-06-26/hcws879.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was their original target number of apprenticeships supported by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund Round 1, and how many apprenticeships were completed.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF) was an £80 million fund over two rounds to support nature recovery and conservation across England between 2020 and 2023. It was developed by the last government in response to COVID-19 and administered on behalf of Defra by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). Comprehensive independent evaluation reports for both rounds are available on the NLHF website.
The GRCF was an open grant programme that sought to meet a range of objectives. While green jobs and skills was a key objective of the Fund, no target was set for the number of apprenticeships supported.
Monitoring data from grantees show that 252 apprenticeship roles were created across Round 1, accounting for 201 Full-Time Equivalents.