Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Paragraph 21 of the Fraud Strategy published on 3 May 2023, which were the top five countries identified as sources of fraud originating from overseas or having an international element; and what contribution did each of those countries make to the 70 per cent of fraud estimated as originating from overseas or having an international element.

As joint leaders of the National Fraud Squad (NFS), the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) which sits within the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the City of London Police (CoLP), will provide the central oversight and leadership of the NFS. The NCA and CoLP can flexibly direct resources within the national and regional structures as needed, depending on the nature of the capability used. The budget will sit with the organisation that owns the capability.

The new fraud reporting service will continue to take reports of attempted fraud where no loss has occurred. The service will also continue to take reports on ID theft where there is an attempted or actual fraud involved.

Fraud and cyber crime trends are published on the Action Fraud website and can be found at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-stats. These data include both attempted fraud and overall losses.

We are working closely with law enforcement and intelligence partners to improve our understanding of the international fraud threat to the UK, to allow us to strengthen our upstream response and tackle fraud at its source.

We have committed in the Fraud Strategy to working with the NCA and FCDO to assess the countries where fraud comes from, and where we can make the greatest impact in tackling it. The fraud threat to the UK is varied, with some international jurisdictions more commonly reported as connected to certain types of fraud than others e.g., romance fraud in North-West Africa, call centre enabled fraud in South-East Asia and investment fraud from different parts of Europe.

Law enforcement data can be sensitive and publication of the NFIB estimation would be a matter for City of London Police. We will continue to work with law enforcement partners to scope what data can be shared publicly.