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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2022 to Question 135713 on Business: Coronavirus, how much of the amount lost from the public purse to fraud in the Bounce Back Loan Scheme has been recovered to date.

The Government continues to work closely with the British Business Bank, lenders and enforcement agencies to tackle fraud and to recover as many fraudulent loans as possible. This is on top of the £2.2 billion worth of fraudulent applications that were reported by lenders as having been prevented by upfront checks.

Lenders are responsible for undertaking recovery action in the first instance, whether in cases of suspected fraud or otherwise. Given the stage of the scheme it is not currently possible to identify the level of recoveries which apply directly to fraudulent loans.