Preventing and Reducing Fraud and Error

After the National Fraud Authority’s June 2013 report found fraud and error is costing the UK public sector £20.6 billion and the Government’s calls for a zero tolerance approach to fraud and error, there has been renewed pressure placed on both national and local governments to prevent and reduce fraud and error. With this in mind the Fraud and Error Conference 2014 took place on Thursday 15^th May at One Great George Street, London – attendees joined to explore new methods, technologies and software that can assist the public sector in improving methods used to identify, detect and prevent fraud and error. 

 

 

Over the course of the days discussions influential speakers focused on how public sector initiatives can save £22.4billion between 2014/15 and how new counter-fraud strategies can be used to mitigate future threats. Key questions considered by those in attendance included:

-          How to increase workforce capability and recover more debt

-          How to target resources effectively to tackle social housing and tenancy fraud

-          How to develop greater strategies to assist in the investigation, prosecution and prevention of fraud

 

The conference was opened with a keynote address from the Cabinet Office, Lesley Hume, Executive Director – Fraud, Error, Debt & Grants and Mark Cheeseman, Head of Fraud and Error Policy joined the event to offer updates on the Fraud, Error and Debt Taskforce, paint a picture of the evolving fraud and error landscape and discuss the real cost to government. They highlighted the fact that exposure to F&E could equal half of government borrowing but distribution of losses was uneven – 80% of known losses from HMRC and DWP. Lesley and Mark’s presentation was followed by a session lead by Coactiva (Andrew Davis and James Rawlins) which focused on the practicalities of tackling F&E with case studies on tax credits and housing tenancy fraud.

Mark Babington, Director, Regulation & Fraud and Money Laundering Reporting Officer, National Audit Office and Member, Cabinet Office Fraud, Error and Debt Task Force closed the first morning sessions with a speech on the methods being used to identity, detect and prevent fraud through process auditing.

Next Alan Bryce, Head of Counter Fraud, Audit Commission offered his thoughts on the ways local and central government can prevent fraud and ‘Protect the Public Purse’ – his presentation highlighted the following:

-          Greater transparency in the national approach to fraud detection

-          Significant media coverage required nationally

-          Local approach should focus on tailored briefings for different councils

 

Next Cllr Sharon Taylor OBE, Leader, Stevenage Borough Council, Deputy Chair, Local Government Association provided her insights in to the £845million tenancy fraud issue and the ways local authorities can tackle social housing and tenancy fraud.

Councillor Lindsey Hall, Anti-Fraud ‘Tsar’, Westminster City Council offered practical solutions and suggestions to reform F&E:

• An LA Political Fraud “Tsar” to act as conduit across departments and from ‘coal face’ to lawmakers!
• WCC Published ‘Cutting the Cost of Fraud’; LAs need not be frightened of reputational damage.
• Co-operate with the media; fair coverage serves to remind us this is not about politics but about crime.
• Popular with public & taxpayers to know public purse protected and managed “with ownership”
• If we expect honesty from tax-payers – they deserve honesty and respect for the way we spend their money
• UNIVERSAL CREDIT; huge ambition to reform 51 different benefits, so much at stake, failure not an option
• SIFIS? An obvious, sensible solution but must be in conjunction with LA – politically and practically. A challenging time for LAs.

A panel of expert speakers also joined the conference to discuss the importance of collaborative working to tackle fraud, they included:

-          Justin Freebairn, Counter Fraud Champion, Crown Prosecution Service

-          Donald Toon, Director, Economic Crime Command, National Crime Agency

-          Graeme Thomson, Programme Manager (Counter Fraud and Error), Cabinet Office  

-          Tom Smith, Benefits and Credits Director, HMRC  

The Fraud and Error conference was closed by Mark Astley, Head, National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) who offered a presentation on counter fraud strategies to mitigate future threats.

 

Open Source - 'Creating a Level Playing Field'

This was a common theme presented by speakers and attendees at Open Source, Open Standards 2014. The conference took place on the 3^rd April 2014 at the Business Design Centre, London.

Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Chairman and Co-Founder, Open Data Institute (ODI)delivered the opening special address, which focused on the importance of open data globally in an increasingly virtualised environment. Examples used to highlight the importance of open data focused upon the relationship between open data and transport, local government, public health, governance and crime. This was followed by a presentation on the future of open source and its ability to increase organisational agility by Bryan Cheung, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Liferay.

Agility and open source remained a theme for the rest of the day and was also discussed by James Stewart, Head of Technology, Government Digital Service (GDS). James focused his presentation on how the GDS team utilised open source technology and how central government departments are using open source in the Digital by Default 25 exemplar services. The Digital by Default Service Standards included:

• Assemble a multidisciplinary team that can design, build and operate the service, led by a suitably skilled and senior service manager with full authority and decision making responsibility.
• Make sure that you have the capacity and technical flexibility to update and improve the service on a very frequent basis.
• Use open standards and common government platforms (eg identity assurance) where available.
• Make all new source code open and reusable, and publish it under appropriate licences (or provide a convincing explanation as to why this cannot be done for specific subsets of the source code).

Adrian Keward, Strategist & Senior Solution Architect, Red Hat UK then discussed the importance of open source in the enterprise and the importance of reliability and supportability provided by open source solutions. Next on stage was Mark Taylor, UK Director, Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) who stressed the estimated UK spending on government IT is about 1% of GDP "more than we spend on Wales". Mark highlighted the opportunity to Government to change the way it operates in the ‘Age of Open’.

Open Source software and technology was demonstrated as a great money saving, agility increasing alternative by the morning speakers but many public sector bodies are hesitant to move towards open source – with this in mind David Munn, Head of Information Technology, Greater London Authority asked ‘What is holding back adoption?’. The final speaker of the morning, Andres Kütt, Information System Architect Advisor, Estonian Information System Authority, told of the Estonian open source experience and highlighted ‘closed source used to be chosen for its superior functionality... this is no longer the case’.

The afternoon session was kicked off with a fantastic presentation from Mark Dearnley, Chief Digital & Information Officer, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) who offered insights in to HMRC’s open source strategy. Open Source should ‘create a level playing field’ and was an important development for Britain’s third largest publisher - HMRC. 

Francois Mounier, Head of Development Services, London Borough of Camden was unexpectedly joined by John Jackson, CIO, London Borough of Camden who announced the Open Systems Alliance, a local authority initiative to drive an open approach to ICT. An initiative that was supported by many in the room including Bristol Council.

The final speaker of the day joined the audience from CESG - Chris Ulliott, Technical Director and Member of the Open Standards Board who ended the day with a discussion on the perceived insecurity of FOSS and open source security concerns.

The Open Source, Open Standards speakers demonstrated the importance of open source software and technology in the future fo public sector ICT. The possibility of an 'Open Future' is an exciting one and we look forward to discussing this further and in greater detail in 2015!