Grant fraud is expected to soar because of the amount of COVID-19 funding channelled through local government, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

Latest figures from CIPFA's fraud and corruption tracker showed that pre-pandemic grant fraud in 2019-20 represented just 0.3% of the total number of fraud cases in the sector or just 161 cases, adding up to £37m out of a total local government fraud bill of £7.3bn.