Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the (a) value of online fraud committed in the UK by perpetrators based overseas and (b) proportion of the total amount of online fraud committed in the UK that was committed by perpetrators based overseas, in 2021.

Fraud emanating from countries abroad affecting UK citizens is a key concern for this government and we are committed to combatting it. The Home Secretary regularly engages with her international counterparts to build collaboration against this and other crime types. International collaboration on fraud includes the work of the City of London Police, which is the national lead force for fraud, partnering with law enforcement and industry to combat fraud from overseas jurisdictions. UK authorities continue to work with their international counterparts on a case-by-case basis to target criminals responsible for defrauding members of the public and businesses.

We do not currently hold data on online fraud emanating from overseas. This is why we continue to make a concerted effort to strengthen our evidence base and improve information sharing both as set out in the Economic Crime Plan and the 2021 Statement of Progress (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/economic-crime-plan-2019-to-2022).

Alongside this we are developing a new approach to disrupt, deter and drive down the number of fraud incidents, including working with international partners. This approach is now being developed and will commit key partners in the public sector and industry to do more to tackle fraud, focus on key areas to restrict criminals’ opportunities to commit fraud and increase public awareness.