Issue - meetings

The Director of Resources (Section 151 Officer) presented a report that summarised a full year of anti-fraud activity being carried out by the Council through the joint working agreement with Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.

It was noted that there were no significant incidents of fraudulent activity since the last report to committee in November 2023.

The report provided information on the cashable and non-cashable saving that had been delivered as a result of the Council’s strengthened anti-fraud approach and examples of the types of fraud being prevented were presented to the committee.  It was noted that the savings for quarters 3 and 4 in 2023/24 would be averaged and used as a benchmark to report against in future years.  This would help to identify future resourcing levels.

It was confirmed that the stated savings set out in the report appendix increased in each quarter due to the improved level of case referral work that had been undertaken during the course of the financial year. Training had also been undertaken with high risk teams, such as Revenues and Benefits, to improve their ability to identify and refer fraud.  This had been carried out alongside mandatory financial crime training that had to be completed by all staff.

Officers were asked to review the policy of increasing council tax by 300% for properties that had been empty for 10 or more years. It was confirmed that Officers were looking to create an empty property strategy for the Council and this would be considered as part of the review.  Related to this issue, the Council had successfully applied for £157,000 of funding from Surrey County Council to progress the empty property strategy.

R E S O L V E D – that the committee note the full-year Fraud Report for 2023/24.