Recommendation 6

Current legislation limits government’s ability to deploy data analytics to tackle fraud and error. Some existing legislation, such as the Digital Economy Act, support the use of data analytics to fight fraud and error by enabling data sharing across departments. However, there are also instances where legislation, written some time ago, does not fully support the effective deployment of modern data analytics techniques. For instance, the Local Audit and Accountability Act, introduced in 2014, does not allow for profiling of individuals’ behaviours. In practice, this means that it does not allow government to flag individuals who have committed fraud 6 before as an indicator for future fraud detection work, as would be done in other industries. Moreover, the data collected as part of the National Fraud Initiative, enabled by the Act, can only be retained for two years. This limits the ability to look at historical fraud trends and the range of data that can be used when trying to identify fraud. recommendation a. The Public Sector Fraud Authority should review the legislation impacting its ability to implement fraud and error data analytics and communicate to Parliament where it believes additional powers or other changes to legislation would be helpful. b. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Public Sector Fraud Authority should review the regulatory regime around government’s fraud and error activities and communicate to Parliament where they believe additional powers or other changes to legislation would improve controls for specific fraud and error risks. 7 1 Taking the opportunity to make fraud and error savings Introduction