Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Accepted
More than 300,000 victims report their case directly to Action Fraud each year, and a...
Recommendation
More than 300,000 victims report their case directly to Action Fraud each year, and a further 600,000 reports come to Action Fraud from businesses and industry. But less than 1% of cases received by Action Fraud result in an offender being charged or prosecuted for the crime, .18 City of London Police told us that one of the challenges with investigating reports received through Action Fraud was the level of information received from victims. For example, a victim may report a romance fraud where the fraudster claims to be a fictitious soldier serving in the American military and phoning from the US. However, in reality, the name and location given to the victim are not the real name and location, leaving law enforcement with very little information upon which to base their investigation. City of London Police asserted that the solution to this was both a combination of getting better information from victims, and bringing in intelligence from the private sector, technology companies and law enforcement to build a better understanding of how offenders were committing these crimes.19
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and is providing £30 million to City of London Police to support the upgrade in the Action Fraud service by 2024. Interim improvements include increased call center staff, faster case referral, prioritisation of vulnerable victims, and roll out of the National Economic Crime Victim Care Unit (NECVCU).
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3. PAC conclusion: Victims of fraud are being failed by Action Fraud, which risks undermining public trust in the police. 3. PAC recommendation: The Department should set out, as part of its Treasury Minute response, how Action Fraud’s replacement in 2024 will improve the way it engages with victims of fraud and updates them about their case and any plans it has to make improvements in the interim. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2024 3.2 The government is providing £30 million to City of London Police to support the upgrade in the Action Fraud service by 2024. Victims, however, will not have to wait until then before they begin to see improvements in the reporting service and the information and support provided to them. Several improvements to the existing system have already been put in place including: • increasing the number of staff in the call centre and introducing a new chat bot for the website to handle greater volumes of reports. • sending cases to forces faster so they can consider whether an investigation should take place. • web reports are now analysed to identify vulnerable victims so their cases can be prioritised for immediate assessment and one-to-one support. • roll out of the National Economic Crime Victim Care Unit (NECVCU) service that vulnerable victims are referred to by Action Fraud to help them avoid revictimisation. 3.3 The full replacement service will launch in 2024. This will include a new reporting website that will make it easier for people to report fraud and to access advice on how to protect themselves. Anyone reporting to the new service will also be able to track the progress of their report and receive better updates.