East London council misused 2 million of government grant, councillors told

"The initial evidence that came to light was that some departments within the council were using the allocation for purposes that it hadn't been given for. It came as a shock that actually what we found in the end was that there was 1.8 million of potential ineligible spend. Cllr Worby said the government was reassured that none of the misspending had been deliberate and that the council had put stricter measures in place over the use of the money."

"Speaking to councillors at an overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday, the town hall's director of health Matthew Cole said he distributed the grant among other departments. However he said that, until recently, he'd had no oversight of how those departments then used the money. Cole said: Because I couldn't see other departments' budgets and how it was spent, I had no oversight. I don't think people understood the ringfence. They basically felt they were given the money and it was theirs."

The Department of Health and Social Care provides a ringfenced public health grant for activities specified under the National Health Service Act 2006. An independent 2024 review found several council departments used parts of the grant for purposes not covered by the ringfence. The review identified about £1.8 million of potential ineligible spend. Council leaders said the government was reassured the misspending was not deliberate and the council has implemented stricter measures. The town hall's director of health acknowledged distributing the grant across departments without oversight and said some staff did not understand the ringfence.

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