The poor performance of NATIS will see the unit disbanded with fraud responsibilities moved to the Insolvency Service.

Since the pandemic, Covid related fraud investigations have been run through Thurrock Council’s National Investigation Service (NATIS), but after poor results and governance failures, the government has cancelled the contract.

In 2020 the Conservative government signed a contract with the now bankrupt Thurrock Council for its NATIS team to investigate the perpetrators of Covid bounce back loan fraud, which cost British taxpayers billions.