Nearly £1bn of fraudulent Covid grants made to UK firms ‘unlikely to be recovered’

Business department says in annual report that a total of £985m likely to be lost to ‘fraud and error’

Taxpayers are facing a loss of almost £1bn in fraudulent or erroneous grants paid to supposedly struggling businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the government.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said that because it was tasked with prioritising “getting money out of the door the majority of payments made in error are unlikely to be recovered”.