Covid-19 saw the rapid deployment of large-scale interventions that sought to help manage and reduce the threat posed by the pandemic. These interventions, however, quickly came under scrutiny - with concerns of transparency and the misuse of public funds.
To address these concerns, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves confirmed in her budget announcement that the new Labour government have appointed a COVID Corruption Commissioner. The primary focus of the role will be to recoup the billions of pounds of public money that was used fraudulently during the pandemic.
The new Commissioner, who will work with HMRC and the National Crime Agency, will investigate an estimated £7.6 billion of Covid related fraud. This includes public money wasted on PPE, incorrectly claimed furlough payments, misused funds from the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ Scheme, and any outstanding from the Covid Business Loans and Grants.
Nicola Brook, solicitor at Broudie Jackson Canter, which represents more than 7,000 families from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK Group, said:
Too much money was gratuitously wasted during the pandemic through negligence and fraud and the Labour government should be commended for the creation of the role of a Covid Counter Fraud Commissioner to address this horrendous issue. If it is successful and the many millions wasted can are recouped, then the money should be ploughed back into the NHS - where the funds should have been sent in the first place.
Module 5 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry will consider the procurement and distribution to end-users across the UK of key healthcare related equipment and supplies. This will include the examination of steps taken to eliminate fraud, the prevalence of fraud, compliance with public law procurement principles and regulations, and the existence of any maladministration.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice have been granted ‘Core Participant’ status for Module 5, which will investigate procurement. This means they will be directly involved in the investigation and have submitted a large number of issues that they believe should be investigated by the inquiry. One of these is ‘What evidence is there of conflicts of interest, fraud, and profiteering, what is the scale of such issues, when were they discovered, and what was done’.
You can read more about the Covid Inquiry here.