Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland on fraudulent or incorrect payments paid out by public bodies in Northern Ireland.

The UK Government does not hold this information and is a matter for the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

However, we are committed to combatting fraud through prevention, detection and taking action against those who commit it.

The Cabinet Office worked with HM Treasury to launch the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in August 2022. The PSFA is the government’s centre of expertise and works with ministerial departments and public bodies to understand and reduce the impact of public sector fraud. The PSFA provides counter fraud data analytics capability through the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) to public bodies including those in Northern Ireland. Between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2022, the NFI achieved £4.4 million of counter fraud savings through the prevention or recovery of fraud in Northern Ireland.

The Rt Hon. Jeremy Quin MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and HM Paymaster General, has not had any meetings on the subject of fraudulent or incorrect payments paid out by public bodies with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland.