Agenda item

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 figures, proportionality and whether this was higher or lower than the previous year, these figures were reported annually and previous versions of annual reports could be viewed, but this figure could be included in the report as a reflection in future.  The figures themselves were comparable.  In relation to fraud, nationally they were only hitting the tip of the iceberg.  Locally, it was proportional and there had been no material fraud picked up by the external auditors and where any fraud had taken place this had been thoroughly investigated and, where necessary, a lessons learned document produced to prevent similar fraud occurring in the future.  A fraud Risk Register was maintained by senior Fraud Investigators and they were able to identify any direction of travel.  Trends were found around social care fraud, direct payments and cyber fraud which was a national trend.  The council were receiving more internal referrals bringing potential fraud to the team’s attention which indicated that there was a good level of awareness across the organisation in terms of the potential for fraud although it should be noted that these referrals did not always result in confirmed fraud being identified.

The Head of Registrars, Public Protection, Legal & Democracy explained that in relation to a premises licence, the licensing regime that the government was bringing in regarding tobacco and vapes was not yet in force and the regulations were awaited to see exactly how it would work.  Where a premises licence application was made, it was at this point that it was determined whether the applicant was a fit and proper person.  Once the legislation changes were in place, as well as the mandatory licensing regime there will also be a regime for fixed penalty notices.  Any referrals would need to be evidence based in order for an investigation to commence.  There was a role for the Police in terms of fraud within the multi-agency work alongside trading standards.

Upon being put to the vote it was, unanimously:

RESOLVED: that

a)    the content of the Anti-Fraud & Corruption Annual Report be noted; and

b)   the Anti-Fraud & Corruption Policy be approved.