Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Accepted
Despite making up 41% of all crime in the year to June 2022, only around...
Recommendation
Despite making up 41% of all crime in the year to June 2022, only around 1% of police personnel are dedicated to fraud. In 2017, we raised concerns that fraud was not mentioned in all Police & Crime Commissioners’ police and crime plans.22 The NCA told us that fraud is now mentioned in all police and crime plans but that this will “take some time to feed into how police direct their activity”.23 The Department also told us there was the possibility of government setting police direction by including fraud in the strategic policing requirement—a document which sets out the Home Secretary’s view of the national threats and the policing capabilities required to counter them—and that this was something that Ministers were considering. City of London Police told us that around 27,000 fraud cases a year were sent from Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, a centralised intelligence function within the City of London Police, to policing and law enforcement for investigation. Of those, around 5% result in a criminal justice outcome, where an offender is charged or prosecuted for the crime. The NCA told us that the historic approach of collecting thousands of reports from victims and trying to investigate these had not worked, and the government was now looking to take a more proactive approach to prevent fraud.24 The Department explained that it was allocating £400 million over the next spending review period to enhance the capabilities of law enforcement and intelligence organisations to respond to fraud. City of London Police told us that part of this funding was intended to build 10 proactive fraud investigation teams around the UK, who will work with local and regional policing to identify and disrupt fraudsters before a fraud is committed.25The NCA gave an example of recent work by the Metropolitan police in identifying and taking down a website which was enabling criminals to make spoof phone calls to individuals, posing as their bank, the NCA or a
Government Response Summary
The government is increasing law enforcement investigative capacity to tackle fraud by launching the National Fraud Squad (NFS), which will include over 400 new posts across policing and the NCA by 2025. The revised Strategic Policing Requirement gives greater prominence to fraud.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4. PAC conclusion: The Department has failed to support police forces to build the capacity or skills they need to tackle fraud effectively. 4. PAC recommendation: The Department should outline, as part of its Treasury Minute response, how it will increase both the priority of tackling fraud within territorial police forces and the capacity of police forces to investigate cases. The Department also needs to step up its support to police forces to ensure they can tackle fraud more effectively. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Ongoing until Spring 2025 4.2 The government is increasing law enforcement investigative capacity to tackle fraud. We announced the launch of the National Fraud Squad (NFS) in the Fraud Strategy. This will include over 400 new posts across policing and the NCA by 2025. The NFS will investigate and disrupt more fraudsters through strategic coordination at a regional and national level. 4.3 The NFS will be jointly led by City of London Police (CoLP) and National Crime Agency (NCA). CoLP, as the national lead police force for fraud, will increase its view across wider policing’s activity on fraud, disseminating intelligence, promoting best practice and holding forces to account for delivery. NCA, as the operational system lead, will lead operational work across law enforcement, the intelligence community and industry focusing on a more proactive response to tackling fraud. The NFS will share intelligence in real-time to understand the threat and take proactive enforcement action across government and the private sector against the most harmful fraudsters targeting the UK public. 4.4 The revised Strategic Policing Requirement gives greater prominence to fraud. This will focus police efforts to tackle fraud and maximise the output of existing police resourcing, by helping local forces better exploit NCA and CoLP’s national capabilities.