The government agrees with the recommendation and states that lessons learned from delivering the initial COVID-19 support grants is that greater assurance can be obtained through mandating pre-payment eligibility checks by local authorities, improved assurance sampling design, innovative data collection and management, as well as independent evaluation.

The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and states that the exchange of letters for schemes implemented under Ministerial Direction have since been published on GOV.UK, and that external advice was received ahead of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme’s launch on measures to try to mitigate fraud.

The government agrees and has provided over £2.5 billion in funding over the past decade, and is providing a further £335 million over the next three years, and will share letters with the Committee from BEIS to Post Office, providing assurances for the Historical Shortfall Scheme, interim and full payments for those with overturned criminal convictions. Further letters will be shared with the Committee at the earliest opportunity.

Responsibility for checking that all grant awards were issued in a compliant manner and to eligible businesses rests with the local authority. It is a condition of BEIS grants to local authorities that they must take all reasonable and practicable steps to recover any payment made in fraud or error before BEIS becomes liable.

The government agrees with the recommendation to establish a standard framework for assuring grants delivered through local authorities, with a target implementation date of December 2022.

The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and states it has provided over £2.5 billion in funding to support the Post Office network over the past decade, and is providing a further £335 million over the next three years.