15 March 2007

James Plaskitt MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Treasury Buildings, Great George Street, London.

Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board 10,000th Award Ceremony

Thursday, 15th March 2007

[Check against delivery]

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for your invitation this afternoon and thank you to Lord Goldsmith for his generosity in letting us stage this award ceremony as part of the conference to launch the Fraud Review.

I am delighted to be here today to recognise the 10,000th award of the Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board and also present those awards to students who are with us today.

It is fitting that we are celebrating these achievements during a conference on the Fraud Review, which is looking to improve and join up how we all confront fraudsters. 

For the Review to succeed, and to be seen as successful, our organisations must be viewed as staffed by professionally qualified and accredited teams. 

The new professional regime is one that is recognised across local and central government but now is interwoven with the private sector who have an important involvement in the work of the Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board.

Now, I’m sometimes introduced as the Anti-Fraud Minister.  An onerous responsibility!  But it actually refers only to the issue of fraud within the D.W.P.

I am proud of what DWP (a welfare Department) has achieved in this field over recent years, particularly our proven ability to identify the risks to the benefit systems, measure them and take steps to deal with the issues.

Not least in the investigation and punishment of crimes against the benefit systems.

Let me share with you some of the successes:

• The level of benefit fraud has reduced by two- thirds in the last 10 years;
• Prosecutions and sanctions have increased five-fold even though the level of fraud has decreased
• We now work together more closely than ever across our organisations to address fraud via joint operations e.g. with Local Authorities, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Police and Serious Organised Crime Agency.

You have helped us deliver this improvement.

You are all now part of investigation services accepted as part of the criminal justice system having a raft of highly recognised qualifications extolling what is now acknowledged as a highly skilled profession.

However, there is no room for complacency to creep in.

Despite the reduction in fraud and error in DWP benefits, and no doubt with similar successes in your organisations, fraud remains an ever-evolving challenge. 

No sooner do we close one loophole that the abuse metamorphoses into another fraud often craftier and more elaborate than its predecessor. 

For example sophisticated counterfeiting is not uncommon today and DWP has to constantly review its cheque design and security features to stay one step ahead but the risk of counterfeiting is always imminent.

In Operation Wear the new cheque design was counterfeited within four days of its first issue.  The subsequent investigation saw an individual convicted and sentenced to 3½ years imprisonment.

However, on further examination of the computers seized in the investigation it was revealed the counterfeiting was not only limited to DWP cheques but also New Tax Credit cheques, driving licences, corporate letter heads, bank statements, currency and travellers cheques. 

Often we see examples where the smallest crime copying signatures, forging cheques can germinate into full-scale forgery rackets, drawing more and more people/organisations in.  Operation Wear is a typical example.

In this day and age when the fraudsters are becoming more and more sophisticated and the nature of the frauds they commit are more elaborate and complex it is imperative that we have in place teams of highly skilled, fully trained and dedicated staff who are prepared to rise to the challenges.

However we are successfully rising to this challenge and this is down to all of you.  Today is about you and to celebrate the awards that recognise how you have all faced up to that challenge.

This is not just simply about having done a bit of training. You have learned and practiced exacting skills, (understanding complex legislation, surveillance, analysis, interviewing under caution) which all stand up to close scrutiny in the criminal justice system.

How you conduct yourselves is as important as the result of your case and that is a big part of what you have learned and now been accredited for.

At this point I just want to give mention to Portsmouth University with whom we have worked tirelessly in partnership to achieve the exacting standards required in reaching the level of professional qualifications now being enjoyed by yourselves and many of your colleagues. 

Let us not forget you have been Brand Leaders in this field with the introduction of accredited fraud training to attain professionalism, which started as far back as 1999.

Since that time the Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board has seen the 10,000th accredited counter fraud qualification awarded with many who have trained at foundation level having now progressed to greater levels of academic achievement through Portsmouth and other participating universities.

In addition to the successful candidates mention is also appropriate to the deliverers’ of the training courses some of who are here and who, themselves, have achieved accredited training status. 

Congratulations to all of you.

Thanks to your efforts we now have, across Government and beyond, a professional and dedicated team of investigators who are able to work together effectively as they have learned to do the job using the same tools and skills as each other.

An example of this working together was Operation Banausic – a joint investigation between the DWP Fraud Investigation Service, The City of London Police and Royal Mail. 

This involved the theft of DWP instruments of payment and corporate products such as chequebooks and credit cards from the mail, manipulated and then cashed through third party bank accounts that had been set up using false identity documents.

In this case the Judge said “this was a fraud on an industrial scale” and that it was “a highly organised crime with its main ingredient a very serious breach of trust”. 

In this case nine individuals each received prison sentences totalling 37 years. 

To crack fraud it is essential that we stay ahead of the game, remaining focused on the challenges that lie ahead.

We must continue to cast our detection nets wider and wider by adapting and developing:

• Help and data sharing with the private sectors e.g. banks and financial institutions, credit reference agencies and utility companies to name but a few;
• Look to further enhance new technology – voice recognition equipment;
• Greater use of sharing data not only within differing Government Agencies but also Other Government Departments
• and even beyond to cross-frontier collaboration as is the case with the current DWP Anglo/Dutch initiative;
• A far greater use of risk profiling helping us determine who is more like to commit fraud;

Finally, let us not lose sight of how the Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board, through the counter fraud qualifications and professionally trained staff being recognised here today, has helped to ensure that public funds are and remain properly protected. 

Quickly some examples;-

In the National Health Service

• Reduction in Patient Prescription Charge Fraud by £48 million a year;
• jail sentences for a GP’s and dentists – I’m afraid – defrauding the NHS.

In the Financial Services Sector through Capita

• the exposure of complex £1 million plus claims fraud involving multiple identities and fraudulent documents;

Our bottom line is this…

• Accredited Counter Fraud Specialists help us protect aggregate resources approaching £600 billion; they provide us with a considerable defensive wall against fraud
• Our purpose is clear; we need to work together across the public sector and beyond to protect services and maintain the publics’ confidence in its services and its corporate bodies. 
• I know you are all up to the myriad of tasks that await you in this ever changing and challenging environment.
• So, once again; on behalf of the government, my thanks for all you do and my personal congratulations on your awards today.