Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce fraud in the public sector.

Tackling public sector fraud is a priority for this government.

That’s why the government introduced the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill in January as part of the biggest fraud crackdown in a generation. The measures in the Bill will give us more tools to combat fraud, recover public money and allow the government to investigate fraud.

The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) is also developing artificial intelligence tools to tackle fraud - and is expected to surpass the PSFA’s £250m 2024-25 audited benefits target from these services.

Furthermore, at the request of the Secretary of State for Education to address fraud in student loans, the PSFA is working to coordinate the government's response to fraud within student loans by providing direct expertise understand the scale of the threat posed by fraudsters, identify the most effective immediate disruption activities and how to prevent this kind of fraud in the future.