Recommendation 17

The PSFA told us that it is important to use data to fight fraud, and to maintain public trust that government bodies are holding their data in accordance with Parliament’s intentions.49 The C&AG told us that, while transparency in government operations was a positive thing, when dealing with counter-fraud measures it is important to not provide so much information that it helps fraudsters to circumvent controls.50 The PSFA outlined that its current approach is to disclose what data analytics are being used to fight fraud and to let the public know how their data will be used, but not to make public the various checks it performs on the data.51