GovWire

Thank you.

I want to begin by quoting prominent novelist and former civil servant, Anthony Trollope.

One seems inclined to think sometimes that any fool might do an honest business. But fraud requires a man to be alive and wide awake at every turn!

As all of us here know that the government has been defending against fraud for a long time but I believe we must go one step further - turning the tables to ensure it is the fraudsters sleeping with one eye open.

The challenge we face is stark. Fraud was once the work of opportunistic and cynical criminals, coming up with far-fetched schemes to defraud people.

Like Victor Lustig, whose hustling and ruses in the 1920s included pretending he was a French official planning to sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal.

The person he defrauded, Monsieur Andre Poisson, was so humiliated that he had fallen for the scheme, he didnt even report it to the authorities.

But as society has transitioned into the digital age, fraudsters no longer need to go to elaborate lengths in order to profit from their crime.

A simple text message to an individual, or an application to a government scheme, intended to help those who really need support, is all thats required.

And if the digital and online age has made society a more permissive place for fraud, the pandemic has taken this threat to new levels.

The latest figures from the Fraud Landscape Report suggest that the scale of fraud and error in the public sector is now 33 billion. This equates to 15 pence in every one pound of income tax lost in fraud.

Much is stolen from taxpayers by criminal organisations, who often have links to organised crime syndicates. Some of those losses reflects a failure to design schemes and grants in a way that discourages and limits fraud.

If we do not address this threat to our public services with ambition, realism and rigour, we will be undermining the trust British citizens have put in us to grow the economy and reduce debt so that we can improve public services.

We build from a strong foundation. The UK government is proud to have created the worlds first counter fraud profession that continues to raise the individual capability and expertise of those fighting fraud.

We have created world leading standards in how to manage fraud risk and weve helped teams across government solidify their defences to ensure critical support reaches those who need it most rather than ending up in the hands of criminals.

We are going much further as well. I am here today as a strong advocate for our newly established Public Sector Fraud Authority and as a champion for all Counter Fraud staff across government who work so hard to protect public money.

We are backing your expertise with a 1 billion investment to bolster the prevention and recovery of fraud losses in welfare, tax and COVID Business Loans, and prosecute those who have defrauded the public purse. This is not an easy task as fraudsters are great innovators.

But we are deploying cutting edge tools and world leading expertise to crack down on crime, and fraudsters should know we are coming for them.

The Public Sector Fraud Authority has already begun working with frontline teams. It is providing support to departments who are completing Initial Fraud Impact Assessments to ensure fraud is being considered early in the design of new schemes. It is also building and deploying new technology and tools and creating an enforcement service to pursue and punish fraudsters.

A shining example of that is the recently awarded contract to data analytics experts Quantexa. This will provide a step change in our counter fraud data analytics capabilities and it is part of wider work to embrace the opportunities offered by science and technology, including a new government department, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology dedicated to harnessing them.

The PSFA, established last August, is already having an impact. The continuing work of the National Fraud Initiative reported record results totalling 443 million detected or prevented across the UK between April 2020 and March 2022. But the new approach is already making a difference.

In the autumn, the PSFA rapidly deployed a Tiger Team of counter fraud experts into BEIS to evaluate the fraud risks within the new energy schemes leading to better defended schemes - fighting fraud by design.

Friends here today know that the United Kingdom has a proud history of global cooperation and it has never been more important to stand alongside our closest friends on the world stage.

In the fight against public sector fraud, the UK has an excellent international reputation through its leadership of the International Public Sector Fraud Forum. The forum works closely with our Five-Eyes partners to identify fraud risks, threat insight and leading counter fraud practice.

It is from this work we know that the difficult fraud challenges in the UK are not unique. Unfortunately international crime groups have no problems working across borders and there are additional risks that an increasingly digital economy brings, such as ransomware - the issue that featured most strongly in ministerial discussions that I had in Singapore in October.

That is why Im so pleased that today I can announce a new strategic partnership between the PSFA and Australian Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre - the leading public sector fraud-fighting organisation in Australia. Both our countries face similar threats - with criminal groups trying to undermine our public programmes, and we share common beliefs on the importance of fraud prevention, the use of data and analytics, and the need to build capability.

The new partnership will bring together the brightest and best minds in counter fraud to join forces and fight fire with fire. Over the coming years, we will work together on a series of projects to develop new counter fraud tools, deepen our understanding of public sector fraud and create world leading standards.

This new partnership is one of the important ways we are building skills and capability in the public sector. Building these skills is very important if the Government is going to get the economy growing faster, one of the Prime Ministers five priorities.

I am delighted that the first cohort of senior leaders, including those from the Australian Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre, have completed the first module of the Counter Fraud Leadership Programme, in partnership with Coventry University.

This is a key component of our plan to transform and modernise the public sector fraud response. It ensures those leading it have the expert knowledge and skills to do so.

Important work has already been done to ensure the government is moving with the times, including the 1bn investment which is the starting point for how we shape our response to new fraud threats.

Before I leave you in the hands of some stimulating speakers today, I would like to pose a challenge to the room.

When you leave today, I want everyone to consider what were missing. We have many bright minds in this room and youll hear from some of them today. But we should always be trying to think like those we attempt to ensnare.

We must look at our public services and ask ourselves, how would a criminal organisation exploit this for their gain? What are the areas of exposure and what processes are outdated? How do we keep nefarious fingers out of the public piggy bank?

I know you are determined to rise to that challenge and to up your ambition to find better ways of protecting taxpayers hard-earned money. I look forward to hearing more about your success when we meet again.