Fraud cases handled by South Lanarkshire Council dropped sharply last year, according to a new report. The council dealt with 48 investigations in the year to 31 March 2026, down from 201 cases the year before.
The total value linked to those 2025/26 cases was £59,000, up from £53,000 the year before. Of the 48 cases, 22 were closed during the year. Another 26 cases were still open at the end of March, which were worth £58,000 in total.
Case outcomes and findings
Of the cases that were closed, seven were found to be genuine. None of these had any money attached. Eight cases were closed because of “insufficient information” to act on them, while seven turned out to be “unfounded allegations”.
A fraud statistics annual report 2025/2026 was presented to councillors at the council’s risk and audit scrutiny committee on Tuesday, August 25. Jackie Taylor, the council’s executive director of finance and corporate resources, said in the report that nothing unusual had been spotted in how fraud is happening. She wrote: “There have been no new, significant in-year trends or patterns identified in 2025/2026.”
National Fraud Initiative and serious cases
The council also took part in a UK-wide check called the National Fraud Initiative. Councils use it to compare data and catch fraud. Out of 34,635 possible matches, 19,550 were checked. This found 161 cases of fraud or mistakes, and £188,537.09 will now be recovered by the council.
Two cases were reported to Audit Scotland as serious frauds. One involved a part-time worker being paid by mistake as if they worked full-time. The other involved someone pretending to be a foreign supplier so they could change the council’s bank payment details. The report says the council’s checks worked well and no extra action was needed.
UK-wide trends and council approach
The report also looks at fraud across the whole of the UK. It refers to a national report which found that fraud cases nearly doubled over the past five years. But each case is now worth less money on average, meaning fraud is happening more often but in smaller amounts. The national report also warns about new risks, including fraud carried out using AI.
Many councils across the UK don’t have a fraud team. Instead, around 40 per cent of councils use staff who also do other jobs. This matches South Lanarkshire, where fraud work is handled by Internal Audit rather than a separate team.
The report states that the council has “a zero tolerance approach to fraud.” It also says new fraud training for staff will begin in 2026/27.
