Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department made an estimate of the level of losses to (a) fraud and (b) error through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme in May 2020.

The Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) was announced on 27 April 2020 and launched on 4 May 2020. BBLS was launched in extraordinary circumstances. Ministers made an explicit trade-off to ensure businessescould get the financial support they urgently needed as quickly as possible, despite the increased fraud risks this entailed.

The residual fraud risks (which were captured in a draft review prepared by PwC for the British Business Bank) were referenced in the Ministerial Direction letters published in relation to the Scheme, and the Reservation Notice published by the British Business Bank.

The Cabinet Office began an extensive BBLS fraud analytics programme in July 2020. Fraud and error estimates were given due consideration throughout these discussions.