Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Accepted
The Department acknowledged that the current police resourcing levels for fraud needed to increase.
Recommendation
The Department acknowledged that the current police resourcing levels for fraud needed to increase. In April 2022, we reported on the Department’s Police Uplift Programme which aimed to recruit 20,000 new police officers.27 However, as set out in our sister Committee’s report, only 380 of these 20,000 officers (around 2%) will specialise in fraud. The City of London Police told us that forces were willing to investigate fraud but that the issue was often the availability of resources. It explained that many chief constables ask what they were expected to stop doing in order to deal with fraud otherwise they needed more resources. It told us, however, that the first step was getting more from existing resources by focusing on prevention. As our sister Committee recently reported, resourcing issues in policing can also be exacerbated by the significant amounts of time it takes to redact and disclose vast amounts of material that can turn out to be unnecessary to pursuing a case. It recommended clearer guidelines on how the legislation should operate for fraud cases with large quantities of digital material.28
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and will increase law enforcement investigative capacity by launching the National Fraud Squad (NFS) with over 400 new posts across policing and the NCA by 2025, and 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.