Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by his Department in each of the last three financial years.

The Government is proud of its record in proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system. We have established the dedicated Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In its first year it delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.

The PSFA produces a Fraud Landscape Report

(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-government-fraud-landscape-annual-report-2022). This provides data on fraud and error detection, loss and recoveries in Central Government, outside of the tax and welfare system. The 2020-21 Report was published in March 2023.

Ministry of Defence detected £149 million fraud in FY 2020-21, published in the Annual Reports and Accounts for FY 2022-23 – page 79.

(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-defence-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023)