The Cabinet Office has announced a contract for the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) to use a new platform equipped with AI to combat fraud in the sector.
It has agreed on a £4 million deal with data analytics specialist Quantexa, saying it can provide technology capable of processing billions of data points at high speed to identify suspicious activity.
The company produces a Contextual Decision Intelligence platform that it says can be used for a range of purposes including fraud detection, with the capability to focus on high risk people, businesses, channels and losses, and to reduce the time needed for investigations.
The Cabinet Office has previously worked with Quantexa on revealing instances of potential fraud within the Government’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme, which involved processing more than 100 million data items and analysing a set of 250 networks of people, organisations and places.
The new contract is part of a wider investment to fight fraud in the public sector.
Stepping up fight
Cabinet Office Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe said: “Fraud against the public purse is unacceptable and we’re stepping up the fight against those who wish to profit off the backs of taxpayers.
“Through the use of cutting edge technology, the Public Sector Fraud Authority will use data and AI to help us in the fight against fraudsters.”
PFSA chief executive officer Mark Cheeseman commented: “As criminals develop more sophisticated tools, we too must innovate and modernise our approach to prevent fraud.
“By bringing together expertise and tools from the public sector and private sector we will raise our ambition and challenge ourselves to increase our impact on this often unseen and underestimated crime.”
The PSFA has been backed by £25 million of funding and has a first-year target, which it said it is on course to hit, of saving £180 million.
