Research: Fraud
(asked on 19th May 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total value of suspected grant fraud investigated by UK Research and Innovation in each of the past five financial years; and how much was (1) confirmed as fraud, (2) prevented, and (3) recovered, in each year.
Answered by
Lord Vallance of Balham
Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UKRI makes consolidated data returns to the Public Sector Fraud Authority covering identified, recovered and prevented fraud. The data requested is in the table below.
For individual cases, investigation, recovery, and prevention activities can extend over multiple financial years. Therefore, care should be taken when comparing data points across the table below. The data provided for the last financial year (2024/25) is provisional, and final figures will be published in UKRI’s 2024/25 Annual Report and Accounts.
| Value of suspected grant fraud investigated | Confirmed | Recovered | Prevented |
2020/21 | £12,761,945.94 | £1,410,994.14 | £149,716.01 | £4,893,567.13 |
2021/22 | £7,285,776.67 | £3,559,382.41 | £1,044,626.51 | £1,152,805.96 |
2022/23 | £40,418,305.58 | £2,043,255.85 | £1,933,718.99 | £780,427.38 |
2023/24 | £1,930,369.00 | £5,454,586.74 | £1,395,426.05 | £13,536,403.29 |
2024/25 | £6,748,311.14 | £3,345,159.81 | £4,193,153.36 | £22,243.50 |