Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on the establishment of a new national cyber crime force; and what recent steps her Department has taken to provide the police with new technologies to help reduce crime.

Fraud is a national threat and often cases can be complex and sophisticated. It is therefore paramount our policing colleagues have what they need to keep pace with criminals and encourage innovation within industry. That is why, through the Spending Review 21 settlement and the Economic Crime Levy an overall package over the next three years of circa £400 million is being used to tackle economic crime, including fraud.

This funding will be used to replace and upgrade Action Fraud with a new national Fraud and Cyber Reporting and Analysis Service which will gather better analysis to improve the number, quality and timeliness of information packages given to police and expand fraud investigation teams across all Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) and increase investigative capacity in the City of London Police (CoLP). This funding will also support the National Crime Agency, (NCA) to increase their capabilities on fraud.

The pilot of a national cyber crime force focused on fraud, based in the NCA was set out in the 2021 Statement of Progress on the Economic Crime Plan. The NCA’s pilot has delivered new tasking, intelligence and strategic communications capabilities in the NCA. This new national cyber crime force focused on fraud will be fully established by 2025.

Later this year, we will publish a new strategy to address the threat of fraud. This will further set out how we will work with law enforcement to tackle fraud and bring offenders to justice.