Public bodies tackling fraud successfully

Councils and NHS bodies in England and Wales detected £108 million worth of fraud in the past year, according to the public spending watchdog, the Audit Commission.

The latest figures show that councils in England and Wales successfully found £104 million of fraud, involving 231,000 cases. Benefit fraud remains the number one risk in local government - detected fraud increased by 22% to £95 million. Benefit fraud committed by council staff and councillors affected one in eight authorities.

The Audit Commission also identified other risks, with the number of cases of fraudulent payments to suppliers and contractors increasing fivefold.

However, councils have responded positively to the fraud challenge and three quarters of them now have anti-fraud strategies in place compared to only half the year before.

The Audit Commission did, however, express disappointment that almost half of all councils had not established formal whistleblowing arrangements as required under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.

Detected fraud in the NHS rose to £4.7 million in 1998-99 compared to £2.6 million the previous year. The major contributor to the increase was the rise to £3.3 million in fraudulent payments for medical services.

There had been progress in some areas, with the Prescription Pricing Authority Fraud Investigation Unit completing over 700 investigations. But almost 40% of health bodies did not have whistleblowing arrangements in place.