Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report entitled Cross-Government Fraud Landscape: Annual Report 2022, published on 21 March 2023, what the basis is of the increase in detected error in his Department rom £9.5m in 2019-20 to £15.9m in 2020-21.

In reference to the hon. Member’s question, the Fraud Landscape Report figures were reported to the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA, formerly the Counter Fraud Centre of Expertise) as part of established reporting cycles.

The Government defines error as losses arising from unintentional events, processing errors and official Government errors - such losses are judged as without fraudulent intent.

Since 2014, Fraud Landscape Reports show an increase in both detected fraud and error across government. This is in line with the Government's explicit objective to find more fraud in the system. By detecting more, we can understand fraud better - and deal with it better.

The Defra detected error in 2019/20 was published in the Fraud Landscape Bulletin and in 2020/21 was published in the Fraud Landscape Report. The reasons for any increase are set out in these documents as well as in our Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22.

The PSFA assists ministerial departments and public bodies in their delivery of specialist fraud activity. In its first year it delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.