Written by: Dr Cerian Griffiths and Professor Tim Rapley
Dr Cerian Griffiths and Professor Tim Rapley recently spoke at the 2026 Public Sector Counter Fraud Conference, which brings together senior practitioners, policymakers, academics, and private sector specialists to address the growing challenge of fraud, bribery, and corruption across UK public services and beyond.
The conference was extremely well-attended, as in past years, with attendees drawn from across national and local government, the private sector, and a small number of academics with Cabinet Office Minister Satvir Kaur giving a ministerial keynote address. Sessions throughout the day ranged from AI-driven fraud detection and digital forensics, to governance frameworks, sector-specific challenges, and the evolving legal landscape around corporate fraud liability –
With a distinctive global feel, the conference kicked off in earnest with a fascinating discussion between Mark Cheeseman, CEO of the Public Sector Fraud Authority, Michael Horowitz, Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Peter Timson, General Manager of the Payments and Integrity Group at Services Australia, on the global commonalities of fraud against the public sector and effective counter fraud responses. One striking commonality was the extent of fraud enabled by government emergency responses to the Covid pandemic, and the audience was shocked to hear the scale of fraud against both the US and Australian systems. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all speakers agreed that the recipe for successful counter fraud lies in three key areas: data sharing between organisations to identify fraud and fraud threat; the education of all public sector staff to identify fraud; and the building of a proactive culture of counter fraud.
If there was one topic that came up again and again throughout the day, it was technology. From network-based analytics and AI-driven detection tools to digital forensics and open source intelligence, the message was consistent: data is now central to counter fraud work. Private sector players including Quantexa, SAS, Accenture, and Experian were out in force, and the sessions they contributed to raised genuinely important questions about how public bodies can make the most of the tools now available to them.
On a domestic level, sessions around investigative practicalities were very popular. The Network-Based Analytics session led by Julie Barnes of the Insolvency Service was really focused on the realities and practicalities of disclosure in the digital age, a process which all investigators and prosecutors recognise as potentially challenging.
Alongside the technology conversations, there was plenty of focus on frameworks and accountability. The Failure to Prevent Fraud provisions, fraud risk assessment methodology, and data sharing all got airtime, with contributions from the NAO, HMRC, DWP, and CIFAS reflecting just how many institutions now have a stake in getting the
preventive architecture right. The talk on the Covid Inquiry highlighted how concern fraud was, as ever, far from universal and the importance of embedding fraud prevention into public sector thinking and practice. A dedicated session on the Digital Economy Act, headed up by the PSFA’s Joint Heads of the DEA Debt and Fraud Data Secretariat, offered an extremely insightful exploration of the realities and challenges of data sharing. Resonating with many people’s experience, speakers stressed the extreme variation in resource, expertise, data handling capability, and risk appetite between public bodies and organisations. On a more positive note, the session highlighted what the SCAN project has also found in its research thus far, that many of the concerns organisations have around data sharing are often not as significant as parties believe. There is broad agreement that some myth-busting around the parameters of data protection would go a long way to enabling better data sharing going forward.
The programme also made space for sector-specific work that doesn’t always get a platform at cross-government events. Local authority fraud, housing fraud, insider fraud, and identity fraud all had dedicated sessions, giving practitioners from those areas something directly relevant to take away. NHS fraud featured particularly prominently throughout the day.
Dr Griffiths and Professor Rapley introduced some of the initial interim findings of the SCAN project to a very well-attended session. High-level findings were shared, including a visualisation depicting the numerous and varied bodies with direct and indirect responsibilities for protecting the health sector against fraud, a striking illustration of the complexity of the landscape. Attendees were given the opportunity to ask questions, and there was considerable interest in both the research methodology and the big question: what comes next?
Following the SCAN presentation, the global dimension of counter fraud was returned to in a fireside conversation between Alex Rothwell, CEO of the NHSCFA, and Mark Cheeseman, CEO of the Public Sector Fraud Authority. It was a fitting note on which to reflect on the day’s discussions, bringing the domestic and international threads of the conference back together.
Perhaps most encouragingly, the day ended with some genuinely forward-looking discussion on synthetic identities, AI-enabled harm, and whether familiar frameworks like the Fraud Triangle are still fit for purpose. That kind of critical reflection, alongside the operational and policy content, is what makes an event like this worthwhile.
A strong day, and a timely reminder of just how much expertise exists across this sector when it gets into the same room, and also the palpable value of different disciplines working together.
This project is funded by the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme (NIHR159714). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.