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

Parliament voted on 29 April 2025 on New Clause 10 to the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill at Report Stage. The new clause was defeated by 258 votes to 101. The available record does not set out the precise text of New Clause 10, but the debate that grouped it with related amendments concerned proposals to remove the Bill's driving licence disqualification power, restrict mass bank data trawls to cases of suspected fraud rather than all claimants, delay Carer's Allowance debt recovery pending an independent review, and exempt official error overpayments from the most punitive recovery measures. The Bill creates sweeping new powers for the Department for Work and Pensions and the Cabinet Office to recover money lost to fraud and error. The amendments grouped with New Clause 10 challenged several of those powers as disproportionate. Supporters argued that stripping debtors of their driving licences amounts to a penalty for poverty, that compelling banks to scan millions of claimants' accounts undermines the presumption of innocence, and that recovering Carer's Allowance overpayments before an independent review is complete is unjust. Opponents of the amendments argued that existing safeguards are sufficient and that strong enforcement tools are necessary to recover billions of pounds lost to fraud and error. Voting divided almost entirely along party lines. All 251 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the amendments, providing the Government with its majority. The 91 Conservative MPs who voted all backed the amendments, joined by four Democratic Unionist Party MPs, four Reform UK MPs, two independents, and one each from Traditional Unionist Voice and Ulster Unionist Party. No Liberal Democrat votes are recorded in the data. The result is consistent with three other defeats on the same day, including Amendment 11 (85 to 238) and New Clause 1 (73 to 255), suggesting a sustained but unsuccessful backbench and opposition push to constrain the Bill's most contested provisions.