Nearly £1bn of fraudulent Covid grants made to UK firms ‘unlikely to be recovered’

Gareth Davies, the head of the National Audit Office, which scrutinises how well government spends public money, said just 0.4% of all the “estimated irregular payments” paid out in grants by local councils had been recovered. Photograph: The National Audit Office

Taxpayers are facing a loss of almost £1bn in fraudulent or erroneous grants paid to supposedly struggling businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the government.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said that because it was tasked with prioritising “getting money out of the door the majority of payments made in error are unlikely to be recovered”.