Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what total quantified estimate they have made of fraud and error in the Culture Recovery Fund; what methodology, including statistical sampling or independent audit verification, they used to calculate that estimate; and how that methodology has evolved since the start of the fund.

While the department has recently updated data on detected fraud and error, there is no overall quantified estimate of total (detected and undetected) fraud and error for the CRF.

For the core grant programmes delivered by Arts Council England, British Film Institute, and National Lottery Heritage Fund, and DCMS’s loans programme: fraud risk assessment, due diligence, upfront eligibility verification and post award sampling of grants took place across the Fund. This was either conducted or reviewed by independent auditors, however, the methodologies were not all based on statistical sampling so can not be brought together.

The total fraud and error detected across the CRF programmes is £12.9 million, consisting mainly of dual funding with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and breaches of terms and conditions. Of this, £10.3 million has been recovered.