Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 43

The House of Commons voted on 5 November 2025 to reject Lords Amendment 43 to the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which concerned the scope of a power known as the eligibility verification measure. The motion to disagree with the Lords passed by 268 votes to 80, sending the bill back toward its final stages with the government's preferred wording intact. The eligibility verification measure gives the Department for Work and Pensions the power to issue notices to financial institutions, requiring them to identify accounts into which certain benefit payments are made, check those accounts against eligibility indicators, and share details with the DWP where incorrect payments may have occurred or be occurring. Lords Amendment 43 would have altered the scope of that power, and the Commons voted to remove it. The bill more broadly establishes new investigative and recovery powers for the Public Sector Fraud Authority across government, as well as modernising the DWP's tools for tackling fraud and error within the social security system. The practical effect of the vote is to preserve the government's version of these bank-account checking powers, which critics argue represent an unprecedented extension of state access to private financial data. The vote was carried almost entirely on Labour and Labour and Co-operative votes, with 266 government-side MPs voting aye against a no lobby made up predominantly of Liberal Democrats (63), alongside Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, the SNP, and a small number of independents. Notably, one Labour MP voted against the government. The Conservatives, with 116 MPs absent, cast no votes on either side. Within Labour, backbench dissent was visible in speeches from John McDonnell and Neil Duncan-Jordan, both of whom pressed the minister on safeguards, though neither ultimately voted against the government. The bill has been subject to extensive amendment in the Lords and cross-party negotiation in both chambers.