Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle online fraud.

The Cyber Security Strategy published in 2011 provides a strategic response for the UK on tackling cyber threats including online fraud. We have invested £860 million over five years through National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP).

Approximately 10% of this has been spent on building law enforcement capabilities to respond to cyber crime. This includes the establishment of the National Cyber Crime Unit in the National Crime Agency (NCA), and cyber teams within each of the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) across England and Wales. We are also bolstering the law enforcement response through the creation of bespoke fraud units in each of the ROCUs, delivered with extra Home Office funding over the past two years.

We have also brought Action Fraud, the national reporting point for fraud and financially-motivated cyber crime, into the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud. This ensures that a single organisation is responsible for the collection and analysis of reports on these offences, and sending intelligence packages to forces for investigation. In 2013/14 City of London Police disseminated around 40,000 crimes to police forces for investigation and we are working with the City of London Police to raise this further.

We are also working closely with law enforcement, industry and third sector partners to support individuals and businesses to be better protected. This includes national and local level action to increase their awareness of the risks and adopting safe online behaviours. The Cyber Streetwise awareness campaign, funded by the NCSP, helps individuals and businesses understand how to stay safe online as does the Get Safe Online week held in October this year. The second phase of the campaign, including a refreshed website and online materials, launched last month. Action Fraud also circulates real-time information on the latest fraud threats via its website, social media channels and though police forces and businesses. The Government’s Cyber Information Sharing Partnership, within CERT-UK, is also enabling industry to share information on online threats including fraud, helping to reduce their vulnerability and the impact of online fraud on UK businesses.