At a time when councils are juggling the need to deliver high quality services to local people, while absorbing budget reductions of up to 40% since 2011, any loss of resources to fraudsters undermines the collective efforts right across the sector.

But fraud is a serious issue for local government. In the 2016 local government counter fraud and corruption strategy, Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally, the Home Office estimated local government was being defrauded by £2.1bn per year. The scale of these losses are further compounded by changes across the public sector landscape, such as funding reductions, service remodelling and integration, as well as changes to Government policy.