4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: September 2026 4.2 The government recognises the value in developing an accessible library of counter fraud controls that support public bodies to embed preventative and detective controls. 4.3 The PSFA’s Data and Analytics Team is developing a central list of counter fraud data analytics controls that includes guidance on different controls to help mitigate different fraud risks. For example, when and how data matching and machine learning techniques should be used. This library is being co-developed and tested with the International Public Sector Fraud Forum (IPSFF), ensuring it is informed by international best practice. The government will provide a progress update to the Committee in six months’ time. 4.4 The update will also include the ongoing actions to improve the process of data sharing through the powers enabled by the Digital Economy Act (DEA). Since the National Audit Office’s report in 2025, the DEA Secretariat has enacted a series of reforms to simplify the data sharing pilot process through the use of AI to automate proformas. Building on this, the update will set out the progress of the DEA fraud pilots, including those moving into business as usual, and the progress in undertaking a review of the DEA Code of Practice to ensure it facilitates simpler and more streamlined pilots. 4.5 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2026 4.6 The Government Digital Service (GDS) has led development of the Data Marketplace, which is a single data platform to facilitate discovery of public sector data assets. The Data Marketplace private beta phase has now concluded. Learnings from the private beta include the need to reduce the manual requirements placed upon departments to record and update metadata, and clearer guidance on identifying assets that are valuable outside of their organisation. A Discoverability Service is currently being scoped, which will build on learnings from the Data Marketplace, and link directly to departments existing tools and processes. This will significantly reduce the burden on departments and will be reusable across a broader range of data sharing use cases, including fraud and error. A Minimum Viable Product, focused on a small number of use cases, is expected to be delivered by December 2026. 4.7 To further support this work, a Data Asset Management Policy will be rolled out across government over the next 18 months. This policy sets out the requirements for central government departments and their Arm’s Length Bodies to identify and record critical data assets. It further sets out minimum requirements for quality, discoverability, and interoperability together with defining clear data ownership. This cross-government framework is essential to enable safe data reuse, improve quality and reduce duplication across departments. It will establish the lifecycle controls need to treat critical data, including within fraud and error, as an asset, supporting all strategic outcomes.