Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve police responsiveness and investigative outcomes for victims of romance fraud.

The Government published the Fraud Strategy 2026-2029 on 9 March. This includes targeted measures to improve police responsiveness and investigative outcomes for all forms of fraud.

The strategy launched the Online Crime Centre (OCC), backed by over £30million of Government investment. The OCC will unite UK policing, the UK Intelligence Community alongside private sector partners from the financial, telecoms, technology and cyber industries to disrupt fraud at scale including romance fraud.

Report Fraud, the new, streamlined reporting service, which launched publicly in January, improves the service for victims of fraud and provides better intelligence for police. The strategy also highlighted the measurement of police performance through the PEEL inspection programme.

We will transfer overall responsibility for fraud into the new National Police Service, as part of the wider Police Reforms to ensure a stronger and more streamlined police response.