Bounce Back Loan Scheme: Fraud

(asked on 26th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of cases in which a fraud conviction has been secured involving the coronavirus Bounce Back Loan scheme and in which individuals have created a fake company in order to secure a coronavirus Bounce Back Loan.


Answered by
James Cartlidge Portrait
James Cartlidge
Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 31st January 2022

The number of prosecutions and convictions for Bounce Back Loan fraud offences where individuals created a fake company is not centrally held in the court proceedings database, as the Bounce Back Loan scheme is not separately identified from wider fraud offences in legislation. Identifying these offences separately would require a manual search of court records, which would be at disproportionate costs.

Published figures provide the number of prosecutions and convictions for the following offences may include offences of fraud involving the Bounce Back Loan scheme:

  • False Accounting,
  • Fraud by false representation: other frauds,
  • Fraud by failing to disclose information,
  • Fraud by abuse of position,
  • Conspiracy to defraud,
  • Money Laundering,
  • Disclosure, obstruction, false or misleading statements.

The number of prosecutions and convictions can be found by searching for the above offences in the ‘Offence’ filter in the ‘Outcomes by offence data tool’ available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987715/outcomes-by-offence-2020.xlsx.

As reported in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s 2020-21 Annual Report and Accounts, the latest estimate of the rate of fraud and error in Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) is 11.15%. This estimate is based on a sampling exercise which involved assessing a small proportion of BBLS facilities against potential fraud risk indicators. Such indicators included whether a business was trading at the point of application or prior to 1 March 2020. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will continue to refine these estimates as more data becomes available.

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