Recommendation 22

Cabinet Office and DWP told us that timely data sharing can be used to prevent fraud by data matching, improve detection of fraud by sharing intelligence, and enable recovery in cross-government schemes.55 The Digital Economy Act 2017 permits data-matching for the purposes of fraud and error.56 Cabinet Office told us that data analytics is a priority for the Counter Fraud Function which has worked with public bodies to deliver 38 data pilots with an impact of over £90 million to date.57 The Counter Fraud Function is also working to establish closer relationships with the Serious Fraud Office, City of London police, and the National Crime Agency. In addition, it told us that an explicit part of the Function’s strategy is to link up to the cyber and security sides of the Counter Fraud Profession to learn more about different avenues of fraud.58