IN a move planned to change a 'wasteful and inefficient' Thurrock Council-based service into something more effective,  it has been announced the work of the National Investigation Service (NATIS) will move from Thurrock Council to the Insolvency Service this summer, in plans to be announced by the Business and Trade Minister Gareth Thomas today (Thursday, 15 May).

The NATIS service, which includes former police investigators and detectives on its staff, has been based within Thurrock Council since it was first established in 2017, with its 74 staff based across the UK.

Since 2020 its main client has been central government, who commissioned NATIS to lead national investigations into fraud related to COVID-19 business grants. Its investigations are carried out in partnership with the government and UK law enforcement organisations.

The covid-related work of NATIS was highlighted on Thurrock Nub News in September 2023, when it was revealed that Thurrock Council had been conned out of around £80,000 by unidentified scammers who claimed covid relief money. Little detail has been made available of what followed on from that.

At the time the Deputy Director Head of Crime Operations at the NATIS was Michael Dineen, who later became the council's Assistant Director for Community protection and Enforcement Services.

At the time he said: "The teams of the National Investigation Service, as always, have worked with police to ensure those that have defrauded the Small Business Grant Scheme, as well as other schemes, are brought to justice and the money they took is restored to the public purse as quickly as possible."

The quality of NATIS' work and the benefit of it being in Thurrock has been the subject of some debate within the council – with concerns that it was proving a cost burden on the council – rather than a direct benefit. Thurock was paid £30 million when the service was set up five years ago, but the overall benefit to the council of hosting and financing the service is debatable.

At last week's council cabinet meeting, senior councillors went into exempt session to discuss NATIS. Other than today's announcement from the council that NATIS would be leaving, the council has not commented and justified excluding the public from its discussions because they contained information relating to financial or business affairs in which the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

Today the government, in its announcement, has been more forthcoming.

It has revealed that since its inception NATIS has cost the taxpayer approximately £38.5 million. Despite this, NATIS has only secured 14 convictions with the overall amount recovered by the service remaining 'unclear'.

In its statement the government says it has taken 'decisive action to transfer cases to the Insolvency Service – who have a proven track record of effectively tackling fraud - giving taxpayers' money the best possible value.'

Minister Mr Thomas added: "Since coming to office, we have been clear that this government will protect taxpayers' cash and remove unnecessary waste and inefficiency within the public sector.

"Today's decision to transfer cases to the Insolvency Service will ensure lost funds are recovered more quickly and effectively, so they can be reinvested back into the economy and our public services."

The Insolvency Service is an Executive Agency of the Department for Business and Trade.

In May last year a Times newspaper investigation looked into the role the Thurrock-based service which was paid millions by the government to supply investigation services looking into fraud against the public purse.

The newspaper's attention was drawn to the matter over the unit's role in tracking down fraud, related to abuse of the £47 billion covid 'bounce back' loan scheme.

The council was initially paid £30 million for that purpose, a move that has been described as 'comical' by fraud investigation experts.

For example the Times quoted David Clarke, a former head of fraud at the City of London Police - who called for government to take covid fraud more seriously. He said: "This would be comical if so many billions of pounds had not been stolen."

Many commentators couldn't resist pointing out the irony of what was supposed to be a top class anti-fraud service being based in and operated by the same council that lost around a billion pounds in the solar energy 'borrow to invest' scandal. The council was in the early stages of setting out on its journey to borrow and spend hundreds of millions with dodgy businesses and speculators while at the same time playing host to supposedly the best minds in fraud detection.

Much of that money remains unaccounted for and other than one senior officer getting what has been described as 'a slap on the wrist' from the Financial Reporting Council, no-one has been held responsible – even though council officers 'generated reckless provision of misleading information' that led to the financial catastrophe. 

Today's announcement from the council says: "NATIS and the Insolvency Service will be reviewing the organisation's caseload over the next five to six weeks to determine which cases, and as a result which staff, will transfer."

Responding to the announcement, the leader of Thurrock Council, Cllr John Kent, said: "I'm pleased that the future of work of the National Investigation Service is looking secure, and that this important work will transfer to a national organisation with a focus on tackling financial wrongdoing.

"In the last 18 months NATIS has worked hard to improve their governance and deliver results for the taxpayer, through the commitment of staff in the service, as evidenced by previous independent reviews commissioned by DBT.

"Thurrock Council is on its own significant improvement journey, and so we are pleased that this important work will benefit from the dedicated focus and resources of a national agency."

Alec Pybus, Interim Chief Executive of the Insolvency Service who was only appointed three days ago, said:  "We welcome this decision by the Department of Business and Trade. 

"The Insolvency Service is well placed to take on these investigations as part of our ongoing and successful work. 

"We are working with our colleagues at the Department of Business and Trade and at Thurrock Council to deliver a smooth and swift transition of ongoing cases, and any potential transfer of staff."

The government-run Insolvency Service has powers to investigate potential malpractice in insolvent, dissolved and live companies. This may include serious misconduct, fraud, scams or dishonest practice in the way the company operates.