Nicola Sharp outlines the scale and nature of the challenge facing those looking to tackle public sector fraud

The government’s latest attempts to identify and prevent fraud in the public sector are the subject of an article by Nicola Sharp.

In her piece, which has been published by Reports Legal, she details the government’s introduction of a specialist squad to prevent fraud in public services. The squad, which has just begun its work, follows on from the government’s creation of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in an attempt to prevent taxpayers’ money being targeted by criminals.

Nicola states that while a lot of hope is being pinned on the PSFA and this new squad, the scale of the task they face is daunting; with estimates putting the annual cost of public sector fraud at around £40 billion. She emphasises that those who carry out such fraud will not stop because new anti-fraud measures target their activities, as they are adept at identifying new opportunities. This, she says, will lead to “a high-stakes game of cat and mouse’’ between fraudsters and investigators.

Nicola concludes that this latest attempt to tackle fraud may live up to the claims being made for it. But the scale of the problem - and the wily nature of those responsible for it – mean that the challenge is a huge one.

Read Nicola's full article here.