Lessons from Covid: How to avoid fraud in future crises?

About this episode

The episode discusses lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic regarding fraud in government spending and how to prevent it in future crises.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw the government spend hundreds of billions of pounds to buy PPE, keep businesses afloat and avoid mass redundancies. In the heat of this once-in-a-generation crisis, decisions were made that enabled widespread fraud by both individuals and organisations – leading to an estimated £10.9 billion of Covid-19 spending being lost to fraud and error. In December 2024, the chancellor appointed Tom Hayhoe as the Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner to scrutinise Covid spending, explore how public funds could be recovered and make recommendations to prevent fraud in the future. So what could government have done differently to respond quickly to the pandemic while avoiding the vast scale of fraud? What should government do now to ensure there are more robust checks and balances ahead of the next crisis? How can departments and organisations better work together to prevent fraud across the public sector? And how will cultural and technological changes since the pandemic, including the growth of AI, impact the nature of public sector fraud and government’s ability to tackle it? To discuss this and more, the IfG brought together an expert panel, including: Dr Susan…

People in this episode

Host: Institute for Government

Guests: Tom Hayhoe, Dr Susan Hawley, Joshua Reddaway, Rachael Tiffen

Topics covered

• fraud prevention
• government spending
• public sector
• Covid-19
• crisis management
• AI impact

Keywords

• Covid-19
• fraud
• government
• spending
• crisis
• public sector
• AI
• checks and balances

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Spotlight on Corruption, NHS Counter Fraud Authority, National Audit Office, Cifas

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