The government’s AI fraud detection tool – the Single Network Analytics Platform (SNAP) – has been upgraded with thousands of new sanctions and debarment records.
These upgrades will help the AI fraud detection tool detect suspicious networks, activity and users that warrant further investigation for organised crime and sanctions evasion.
In the latest upgrade, three new datasets were added to SNAP:
- 18,000 UK and US-sanctioned entities, including those introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
- 1,000 World Bank debarments that are deemed ineligible for World Bank contracts
- 647,000 UK dormant companies that do not have any income
With this new data, public sector organisations will be even better supported to detect fraudulent claims on public funds through contracts, grants and loans.
Identifying smarter methods to detect fraud
SNAP was launched by the Public Sector Fraud Authority in 2023 as part of its £4m partnership with Quantexa, a UK-based AI tech leader.
The AI fraud detection tool will continue to be regularly updated with new datasets, each increasing the government’s ability to detect fraud committed against the public sector.
Minister Neville-Rolfe also announced today that the government will run a number of AI discovery projects in 2024-25 to identify new ways to detect fraud.
The first of these projects will use AI fraud detection to identify registering and bankrupting successive companies to avoid paying debts, which is known as ‘phoenixing’.
All of the AI discovery projects will be rigorously tested by the Public Sector Fraud Authority in accordance with the government’s Generative AI Framework.
This comes on top of the Chancellor’s decision to expand the Public Sector Fraud Authority by investing £34m to build additional counter-fraud tools with the government’s Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI).
Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, stated: “Criminals should be aware that we’re putting technology on the front line to detect fraud and protect taxpayers’ money.
“Adding sanctions and debarment data to our AI fraud detection tool will help us identify organised networks stealing from the public purse.”
Neville-Rolfe added: “Over the next year, we’ll be running new discovery projects to identify even more ways to use AI to detect fraud against the public sector.”
The Government Counter Fraud Function Strategy: A targeted response to uncover fraudsters
The Public Sector Fraud Authority will also publish the Government Counter Fraud Function Strategy 2024-27 today.
The sector-wide document sets five key objectives for more than 300 departments and public bodies across government:
- Supporting and developing our people
- Harnessing data and technology more effectively
- Embedding prevention
- Driving a targeted response against fraudsters
- Securing cross-system cultural change
Each of the five objectives in the Strategy is supported by specific policy commitments, such as developing a common framework for sharing counter-fraud data and further expanding cutting-edge analytics tools, including the government’s AI fraud detection tool.
“We welcome the Chancellor’s investment in finding and preventing fraud using the latest techniques. This new funding will help us be innovative and detect more criminal activity more quickly, freeing up resources for public services,” said Mark Cheeseman OBE, Chief Executive of the Public Sector Fraud Authority.
“The changes we’re making today break new ground. By adding sanctions data we’ll give the government a big picture view of the networks and entities evading sanctions and potentially defrauding taxpayers.”
