Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Deferred
Paragraph: 74
Fraud currently lacks Strategic Policing Requirement status and comprehensive performance data publication.
Recommendation
Fraud should be made a Strategic Policing Requirement to focus effort and resources on combatting this crime type. Additionally, performance data should be collected, monitored, and published at local and regional levels, as is done for other crime types, to ensure law enforcement bodies are held accountable for their progress in tackling fraud.
Government Response Summary
For the Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR), the government acknowledges the need for stronger fraud capabilities and states ministers are currently considering a revised SPR. Regarding performance data, it points to existing collection and publication on the Action Fraud website and the NFIB dashboard.
Paragraph Reference:
74
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
The Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) is the document that sets out what, in the Home Secretary’s view, are the national threats at the time the document is issued, and the national policing capabilities required to counter those national threats. The current SPR (published in 20151) includes Serious and Organised Crime as a national threat and explicitly references fraud within that – although we recognise feedback from many sides that this reference is not enough. Home Office ministers are currently considering a revised SPR and we are hopeful any new SPR will be stronger on fraud capabilities. Regarding performance data, the Action Fraud website provides details of judicial outcomes for fraud and cyber-crime broken down by police force and other agencies in the UK, for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and cyber-crime dashboard also provides a breakdown of fraud data by force area. More information on Action Fraud data can be found using the following link: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-stats.