Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 10

What happened: The House of Commons voted on New Clause 10 to the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill during its Report Stage on 29 April 2025. The clause proposed adding extra procedural requirements or limitations to the government's powers to recover fraudulently obtained public money. The motion was defeated by 258 votes to 101.

Why it matters: The Bill gives public authorities enhanced powers to investigate and recover funds lost to fraud and error. New Clause 10 sought to build additional procedural safeguards into those powers. Its defeat means the government's fraud recovery regime will proceed without the extra constraints the clause would have imposed, leaving public authorities with broader discretion in how they pursue recovery action. The outcome affects anyone subject to government fraud investigations, as well as taxpayers and public bodies involved in administering public funds.

The politics: The vote divided sharply along government and opposition lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted unanimously against the clause, providing the government's majority. Conservatives supplied the bulk of the 101 Ayes, joined by all four Democratic Unionist Party MPs, all four Reform UK MPs present, and representatives of the Traditional Unionist Voice and Ulster Unionist Party. This mirrors the pattern seen in other divisions on the same Bill the same day, where opposition parties sought repeatedly to add safeguards to the legislation and were defeated by the Labour government's majority at each turn.