A civil servant held multiple full-time jobs at different government departments at the same time, according to a Cabinet Office investigation.
A report by the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) – a data-matching exercise carried out every two years by the Cabinet Office that helps prevent and detect fraud – made the discovery in 2022-23 when looking at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
According to an NFI report published on Wednesday, the exercise identified a Defra employee who had been paid by both Defra and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for full-time roles.
“Following an investigation, it was found out that this person held three roles in three government departments during two separate timeframes,” the report said. “This individual also held two different vetting clearances concurrently with different departments, unbeknown to the vetting team or departments.”
The report revealed the employee had withheld his civil service employment history when applying for additional roles.
After the investigation was concluded, the person was dismissed from Defra and two other civil service employers with immediate effect, while he had already resigned from DHSC.
The report said “polygamous working” had become an “emerging risk area” due to changes to working practices since the Covid-19 pandemic – namely, staff working remotely or on a hybrid basis.
A spokesperson from Defra quoted in the NFI report said: “We concluded that by taking part in the NFI, Defra was able to find and stop this simultaneous employment.”
A government spokesperson said: “While we cannot comment on specific cases, this government has stepped up its efforts to fight public sector fraud.
“We constantly look to improve detection processes and recently implemented new centralised checks to prevent this type of fraud. Moreover, we have expanded the use of data analytics within the National Fraud Initiative, which helped to identify £510m in fraud and errors across the public sector between 2022 and 2024.”
The case was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. The defendant was subsequently charged and the case referred to the crown court.
