National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) - UK

FEATURE: The first five-year strategy to tackle fraud, economic and cyber crime was recently published by the City of London Police – the lead force on the issue for England and Wales – in an effort to redress a decade of ‘deprioritising’ fraud compared to other crimes; the strategy looks to improve the service to victims, prevent the continuing escalation of fraud, and secure more successful justice outcomes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Fraud is now the most common crime in England and Wales, costing the UK economy £137bn each year; in this article, Richard Hyde, Scott Corfe and Bill Anderson-Samways of the Social Market Foundation (SMF) examine the inadequacy of police resource dedicated to tackling the problem, and call on the Government to take a comprehensive ‘systems approach’ to tackling fraud, enacting reforms that can endure over decades.

Feature: Urgent changes need to be implemented to fraud investigations to improve the level of service to victims, according to HMICFRS. Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons looks at the recommendations to make this area of crime a higher priority.

ANALYSIS: More than a year after Sir Craig Mackey submitted his review of UK serious organised crime, last month the Government published an ‘Executive Summary’ only, adding that plans to tackle SOC would now come under the Integrated Security Review; Policing Insight's Ian Wiggett reports on the challenges, concerns and lack of detail in the fight against organised crime.

INTERVIEW: Dame Sara Thornton, the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, has urged forces to invest in training for specialist teams, more financial investigations and closer cross-border working to tackle the huge but often hidden and complex crime of modern slavery and human trafficking.

OPINION: Only 3% of the estimated 3.8 million UK fraud offences in 2019 resulted in a prosecution, and the pandemic has presented fraudsters with the perfect climate to carry out more crimes; Waheed Saleem, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner in the West Midlands, believes an overhaul of fraud reporting and a new coordinated policing response are crucial to fighting the fraudsters.

Analysis: The way in which the police investigate fraud prompted a member of the Home Affairs Committee to recently wonder if the police could be accused of having ‘slopey' shoulders. The reality is far more complex.