Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the report by the National Audit Office, Tackling fraud and protecting propriety in government spending during an emergency, published on 8 February 2024 (HC444), how the Public Sector Fraud Authority defines fraud resource levels of (1) no counter-fraud, (2) clearly mismatched, and (3) potential mismatched; how many government bodies they assessed for fraud resource levels; what methodology they used; and whether they will publish a list of the bodies falling into each of those categories.

As set out in the Public Sector Fraud Authority’s Treasury Minutes Progress Report to the Public Accounts Committee on the Sixty-ninth Report of Session 2022-23 (Tackling fraud and corruption against government), available here, we no longer define fraud resources levels in this way.

This is because it is not feasible to identify a ‘correct’ level of counter fraud and corruption investment. This level is dependent on multiple factors which are considered by individual departments and organisations. The optimum level varies, depending on each organisation's fraud risk appetite and the balance of the other risks they face.

Departments agree targets for their impact on fraud, and an overview is published in Cross Government Fraud Landscape report. We will publish an update on performance in tackling fraud in the next report which is due for publication in November 2025.