Excellence in tackling fraud by Local Authorities recognised at FFCL Awards 2020

The Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally (FFCL) Board is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 FFCL Awards:

• Acknowledge Award (sponsored by Grant Thornton) – Suffolk County Council
• Prevent Award (sponsored by Cifas) – Peter Miles of Rochford District Council
• Prevent ‘Highly Commended’ Award – Kent Intelligence Network
• Pursue Award (sponsored by Intelligencia) – Bristol City Council
• Judge’s Award (sponsored by Appen) – Andrew Faulkener of Brent Council

The award winners were announced at a virtual awards ceremony hosted by Cifas, the secretariat to the FFCL Board, on Monday 14 December 2020.

The FFCL Awards recognise the outstanding work teams and individuals from Local Authorities are doing to protect the public from fraudulent conduct.

Rachael Tiffen, Director of Public Sector at Cifas and Secretariat to the FFCL Board, said ‘Despite the difficult circumstances they have faced this year, Local Authorities have continued to work hard to combat fraud within their regions. These awards recognise not only them, but also the large number of people whose innovative and singular determination to combat fraud has prevented public funds being stolen by fraudsters.

‘All of the entries this year demonstrated the relentless and dedicated work that Local Authorities are doing to combat fraud, and the huge benefits to working collaboratively to protect public money. I’d like to congratulate all the nominees and winners this year, and look forward to continuing to support them through the FFCL next year.’

Having received numerous nominations in each of the categories, commendations and awards were presented to winners by the event’s sponsors: Grant Thornton, Cifas, Intelligencia and Appen.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Awards criteria

Acknowledge Award – Recognises the importance of acknowledging and pro-actively managing fraud risks in local government in order to prevent and detect fraud losses

Prevent Award – recognises new or existing innovative collaborations either between local authorities or between local authorities and external partners

Pursue Award – recognises the outstanding work that goes into local authorities detecting and investigating fraud on a day to day basis.

About FFCL

In March 2020, the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally 2020 strategy for local government was launched, providing a blueprint for a coordinated response to fraud and corruption. The FFCL strategy was commissioned by the FFCL Board and researched and drafted by Cifas and cleared by the FFCL Board, a group of senior multi-disciplinary experts from councils and partners that work with councils on counter fraud activities.

About Cifas

Cifas is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation that protects businesses and individuals through effective and secure data and intelligence sharing between the private, public and third sectors. In 2019, Cifas member organisations prevented over £1.5 billion of fraud losses.

Cifas is committed to working with Local Authorities and helping them in their fight against fraud. In addition to providing resource and infrastructure for the secretariat of the FFCL, Cifas has recently welcomed over 20 Local Authorities into membership and launched an additional service to assist Local Authorities screening Covid-19 economic relief packages.

As credible and respected experts in counter fraud, Cifas works with local authorities and relevant senior stakeholders to provide improved data sharing and access to cross-sector information, enabling them to tackle fraud effectively through our links with national boards such as the Joint Fraud Taskforce (JFT) and the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT).

Cifas data is included in the Office of National Statistics England and Wales Crime Statistics of police recorded crime and works alongside law enforcement agencies in tackling fraud.

Contact us at press@cifas.org.uk