Policy background Digital Government Debt and Fraud
The government is seeking to help manage debts owed to the public sector more effectively. The Act creates a new gateway enabling information to be shared between specified persons, listed in a Schedule on the face of the Act, in relation to debt owed to public authorities or the Crown. This is with a view to improving efficiency in dealing with debt owed to the public sector, and using effective data-sharing to get a more informed view of a customer’s individual circumstances and their ability to pay. Each proposed data-sharing arrangement under this power will be subject to a pilot process which will be set out in a statutory code of practice to measure the effectiveness of the information-sharing.
	Government agencies work to detect and prevent fraudulent activity against the public sector. Similar to the debt power, the Act enables bodies listed in a Schedule on the face of the Act to share information with a view to taking action in respect of fraud against a public authority. These data-sharing arrangements are also subject to a pilot process, which will allow new methods of information-sharing to be trialled and measured for effectiveness. It is intended that more effective data-sharing in this area will make it easier, for example, to spot conflicting information across different public services that could suggest patterns of fraud for further investigation by officials.