Issue - meetings

To receive the Annual Corporate Anti-Fraud & Corruption Report.

 The Head of Governance, Audit & Procurement presented the Annual Corporate Anti-Fraud & Corruption report 2025-26 and the updated policy.

The anti-fraud and corruption work went towards the council’s good governance and included specialist investigations into reported fraud, working alongside other teams such as housing benefit, trading standards and licensing.  The investigation team had identified just under £283,000 in either fraud or customer errors and could involve council tax, supplier and employee fraud / error.

Within the team were two fully qualified and accredited investigators with one recently achieving qualifying to become an Accredited Financial Investigator and has demonstrated a lot of tenacity and skill.  This would give the council more powers in obtaining specific financial information and potentially improve outcomes where fraud has been proven as well as being able to utilise powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Internal Audit contributed to the prevention of anti-fraud and its detection through audits and if any item of note was raised from either the audit team or the investigation team it would be fed through to the Head of Governance, Audit & Procurement.

The report also set out information in relation to cyber fraud which was a national issue.  Investigation work was undertaken in partnership with the Police who often gave the council high praise in terms of the work undertaken as it enabled them to investigate more quickly and efficiently.

There was a requirement to update the Anti-fraud and Corruption Policy every two years and be brought before Committee for approval.  There had been some minor updates to the Policy to reflect some general good practice.

During the debate some Members welcomed the report and put on record their thanks to the Trading Standards Team who had put a lot of work into two really high-profile cases which was successful in ensuring the companies were no longer trading.  It was asked in terms of challenges, and particularly in relation to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, what preventative measures were likely to change how the work was undertaken on a day-to-day basis.  Other Members asked if a table of information could be produced showing categories of money recovered and different types of fraud over the last five years that would show any trends and proportionality and was it felt that the council had captured most of the frauds or was it the tip of the iceberg.  A further question was raised in relation to shops and the sale of vapes where irregularities were identified and how were the council tackling this.

The Head of Governance, Audit & Procurement said he was not envisaging a huge amount of change due to the council being fairly well-developed in the work undertaken.  He considered that the devil would be in the details as it always was with new regulation or good practice.  Once the Act had been embedded, they would be able to assess the impact it may have.  If Members wished a report could be brought to a future meeting.  In relation to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9