Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Action Fraud; what the average investigation timeframe is for a case being handled by Action Fraud; what proportion of cases handled by Action Fraud are passed on to the Police for further investigation; and whether she plans to allocate additional funding to Action Fraud.

The government remains committed to improving the law enforcement response to fraud. In the year ending March 2019, Action Fraud recorded on average almost 26,000 calls and online reports of fraud and cyber-crimes every month (ONS, 2019). Official figures show reports of cyber crime and fraud have trebled since Action Fraud was set up in 2013.

The Government is undertaking a Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) review led by Sir Craig Mackey QPM. The review will cover the powers, capabilities, governance and effectiveness of funding across the policing and law enforcement landscape, and will make recommendations that should be delivered through the 2020 spending review to strengthen the SOC system.

All Action Fraud reports are passed on to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) within the City of London Police, who are responsible for reviewing and allocating intelligence packages to forces for investigation. Neither Action Fraud or NFIB have any investigatory powers and do not conduct fraud investigations themselves. The role of investigation and enforcement remains with local police forces

The Home Office does not hold information on the proportion of cases handled by Action Fraud that are disseminated to police forces for investigation. However, data on the number of fraud cases disseminated by the NFIB to police forces and also the number of fraud outcomes recorded by the police are published annually as part of the Home Office’s ‘Crime Outcomes in England and Wales’ publication. The latest data can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/817769/crime-outcomes-hosb1219.pdf.