Since 2010, the Ministry of Defence has reported losses of over £932 million due to fraud, with significant contributions from procurement fraud, personnel management, service expenses, civilian expenses, and theft of assets.
In a detailed response to a parliamentary question raised by Labour MP Maria Eagle on April 22, 2024, the Ministry of Defence has provided a comprehensive breakdown of the financial losses attributed to fraud in various categories over the past fourteen years.
The figures were disclosed by Parliamentary Under-Secretary Andrew Murrison on April 29, 2024. Here’s a summary of the total detected fraud values for each year from the data:
- 2010/11: £0.24 million
- 2011/12: £0.33 million
- 2012/13: £1.35 million
- 2013/14: £0.43 million
- 2014/15: £284.22 million
- 2015/16: £1.53 million
- 2016/17: £0.68 million
- 2017/18: £2.97 million
- 2018/19: £22.52 million
- 2019/20: £52.97 million
- 2020/21: £57.27 million
- 2021/22: £147.24 million
- 2022/23: £136.13 million
- 2023/24: £223.89 million
Notably, there was a sharp increase in 2014/15, when the total fraud jumped to £284.22 million. After this peak, there was a notable decline the following year, but the trend again started to climb steadily from 2018/19 onwards.
Procurement fraud emerged as a notable concern, reflecting considerable financial implications. Characterised by fraudulent activities linked to acquiring goods and services, this category underscores persistent vulnerabilities in procurement procedures. Fraudulent activities within personnel management have also led to noteworthy financial losses according to the response. Additionally, service expenses had a big impact; such fraud underscores financial implications resulting from misreporting or mismanagement of expenses incurred by service personnel.
What does it mean?
The rising trend from 2020/21 to the current financial year indicates an increase in either the detection of fraud cases or an actual rise in fraudulent activities. The spikes in more recent years suggest that the introduction of improved monitoring and reporting mechanisms post-2020 has possibly led to better detection and documentation of such incidents.
Overall, while some of the fluctuations might reflect changes in reporting standards and detection capabilities, the general upward trend in the latter years could indicate an increased focus on capturing more comprehensive data on fraud.
I think if you look at any business they would say there been a increase in attempted and successful online fraud and scams. Its a huge problem accross the economy thats swept under the carpet and dumped on banks and card companies as their porblem. As some point we’ve just stopped blaming the actual criminals which is why it continues to rise. As for expenses anyone claiming fraudulent expenses should have been dissmissed, its theft. Trouble is we appear to allow theft in society today so it could just be something thats tolerated or even expected and doesn’t even result… Read more »
Firstly theft is not fraud. Theft is just theft.
Secondly there are so many different types of potential fraud that it is not that helpful to bundle them all together.
Thirdly I would have thought that if someone turns up to work in an F35 – people are bound to notice.
Fourthly – Is it my imagination or are the years where nothing much was happening on procurement the years where there was less fraud.
They cannot be comparing Apples with Apples here despite reference to improving controls. How do they go from half a million to >240M, and back to 1.5 million then rising again to >200M?
They must know exactly why this has occurred and will be ‘feeling some collars’. but somehow I doubt that will happen.
Not nessessarily. It could also indicate that the anti fraud investigations and controls were reduced resulting in less being discovered. I suspect its not in anyone’s interest (other than the general public /tax payer) to have the details published, which would be key to understanding if there is a major issue going on or just accounting predication/ changes.
Well to put it in perspective NHS related fraud is about 1billion a year..but that is a function of that fact the NHS is built up of contractors and contract fraud is huge anyway you get huge levels of contracts, the NHS manages around 55,000 contracts in any one year for healthcare provision..then there is another 80,000 providers of physic supplies ( from toilet paper to CT scanners)…that’s before you get to the building contracts, transport contracts, cleaning ect… Then you get the big individual frauds, glasses, dental charge and prescription cost evasions…that’s actually a really big one at £250,000… Read more »
Personnel management?
everything
The definition of fraud is so broad and vague that it’s difficult to infer meaning from the figures. Theft of assets per se is definitely not within the definition of fraud- it is simply ‘theft’.
Lets be honest. Some home to duty claims, Boarding School fees and missed meals allowance isn’t going to be a big part of the last 5 years. Those indicated sums will be contract and procurement. Best guess looking at it, its because someone has taken notice and started to investigate/ uncover things that where there but not reported previously.
We have a goverment that is clearly in it for personal gains, and constant stories of corruption going on from the PM downwards. Is anyone surprised in a tone from the top mentality that this is also trickling down to the civil service.
Nothing new in government departments, theft ,abuse of power for greedy and corrupt people 🙄 😑 😒
Posters are putting this down to procurement but there have been one or instances of people claiming housing, school fees – multiply the numbers and they are not small. Then you have AR officers who are Civil Servants laughing at how they went to watch tiffies take off and land, get shit faced in the mess, claim remuneration and expenses and get paid by the CS. That’s what? A training opportunity? So I’d go with a lot of money being pilfered by personnel. Ukraine. Tutored Latvian CS on English for the Railways as they were going to be advisers for… Read more »
This is fraud that has been identified because people are actually looking for it now hence the steady increase in monetary values. If you claim expenses legally and within the rules …its not fraud. Claiming Boarding school allowance when not entitled is fraud. For AF Personnel using JPA and the data trail you leave behind its easy to see if you are deliberately making fraudulent claims. Why you would is beyond me because if you are using JPA you will get caught when doing it deliberately. That said the rules for claims and expenses are so labyrinthine that I always… Read more »
they forgot to say it was all in the procurement section 😀😀
This is so vague it’s total guess work to attempt to make any sense of it.
So at around the same time the government and the MoD reduced the size of the Ministry of Defence Police CID, and especially their Fraud Squad, fraud went up? What a surprise. Its almost as if government ministers wanted there to be less chance of themselves and their mates being caught. Just like they did with HMRC investigators.
Ignore this. I made a mistake in my GDP calculations and there’s no delete. I’ll post again later with better numbers.
I tried but it got sent to purgatory and never came out the other side. I just wanted to show how the government’s figures for reaching 2.5% were so fraudulent, they might even end up being more cuts. It all depends on projected inflation and growth figures, which are a complete guess when you reach out to the end of the decade. HMG can’t even get them right one year out. If the number is high, HMG would have paid the money to keep over the NATO 2% requirement anyway. So that £75bn promised by the PM by the end… Read more »
Comments go missing once again!
Mod house building is one of the biggest.
Do they count the weapons and training to Ukraine as being fraudulent ?
No. Why would they?