Questions that won’t go away in Bradford school fraud row

THE way in which the Government attempted to report alleged fraud at one of its flagship free schools has been a source of controversy since the scandal broke.

By The Newsroom Wednesday, 22nd January 2014, 5:00 am

Part of a letter obtained under the Freedom of Information Act

A Department for Education (DfE) investigation into the Kings Science Academy in Bradford last year found it had submitted fabricated invoices to claim public money two years earlier.

The DfE reported the matter to Action Fraud – a national fraud reporting centre – with a telephone call on April 25. Although the department has no record of what was said, the DfE says it included all critical information from its investigation report in this call.

Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Sign up Thanks for signing up! Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting...

However the call did not result in a police investigation because Action Fraud wrongly classified the matter as being an information report.

The case only came to the public’s attention in October when the DfE published its investigation report into the school -– after a copy had been leaked to the BBC’s Newsnight and hours before a programme was broadcast.

At the time the DfE also issued a statement which said police had been informed but decided no further action was necessary.

A few days later West Yorkshire Police announced it was now investigating the matter and had not been passed the case until that point. It then came to light that Action Fraud had wrongly classified the matter as being an information report rather than a crime report meaning it had not been investigated for six months. Action Fraud were said to have notified the DfE of this mistake and apologised for it on November 1.

The DfE has previously said this mistake in classifying the matter as an information report was responsible for the delay in the police investigation.

However, the Yorkshire Post has obtained emails between Action Fraud and the DfE which show the department had been told on September 5 – seven weeks before Newsnight was broadcast – that the case was only being dealt with as an information report. The email from Action Fraud also says police did not have enough intelligence information to progress the case and that the matter would need to be reported as a crime in order for police to carry out an investigation. It also invites the DfE to send in more information if it had it.

The Yorkshire Post revelations led Bradford MP David Ward and shadow education Minister Kevin Brennan to question why the DfE had put out a statement on October 25 saying police had decided to take no further action – when in fact the department had been told weeks earlier that case against the free school had not been looked at as a potential crime.

Now the Government is facing fresh questions as the Yorkshire Post reveals that evidence given to the Public Accounts Committee last week by a top civil servant does not tally with the documents given to the newspaper last year under the Freedom of Information Act.

Peter Lauener, the chief executive of the Education Funding Agency, was asked by PAC chairman Margaret Hodge why the DfE did not pursue the case when told the fraud authorities were only noting it. She added: “Why did you have to wait for Newsnght before action was taken?”

Mr Lauener replied: “Before Newsnight we had actually checked out with Action Fraud whether they were pursuing this, whether they needed more information, we phoned them. They said they had decided not to take any further action and we had to take them at their word.”

However according to a DfE response to a Yorkshire Post Freedom of Information request last year there was no record of a telephone call when the DfE asked for an update from Action Fraud – only an exchange of emails.

The DfE email to Action Fraud does not ask whether any more information is needed. It says: “The above case was reported in April to Action Fraud and to date there has been no follow up action by W.Yorks police. It would be helpful if we could be told whether the case is likely to be taken forward in order that we can finalise issues with the academy.”

Mr Brennan said: “The chief executive of the Education Funding Agency gave the impression to the committee that the DfE actively asked Action Fraud if more information was required to conduct a police investigation into the Kings Science Academy. In fact they did not do so in emails to Action Fraud and had been told by Action Fraud that there was no police investigation because the matter was being dealt with as an information report.