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Cifas has officially launched its ‘Fraud Pledges 2024’. They’re a set of proposals from the fraud prevention trade body, requesting that the UK Government commit to reforms and prevention strategies that better protect communities and UK businesses from fraud.
As Cifas points out, fraud represents about 38pc of all crime in England and Wales and has more than doubled in Scotland over the past nine years, pointing to recent statistics from the government’s ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ campaign.
However, Cifas adds, only 1pc of policing resources are allocated to tackling this issue that not only severely harms victims personally and financially but also impacts the UK’s economy and funds serious organised crime.
Helena Wood, Director of Public Policy for Cifas and Cifas CEO Mike Haley formally delivered the pledges document to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday, May 15. The trade body challenges the government to “do more” and provide greater counter-fraud assurances.
The Fraud Pledges are:
Provide cross-government leadership in the response to fraud;
Improve the policing response to fraud;
Enhance support to victims of fraud;
Make the criminal justice response fit for tackling 21st century fraud; and
Require social media and online platforms to join the multi-sector response to fraud.
In a Cifas-commissioned survey of 2,000 UK voters, over a quarter (27pc) felt the proposal to modernise the criminal justice system (pledge four) was the ‘most important’ of all five pledges. (The survey was carried out by Opinion Matters on behalf of Cifas with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK voters between May 8 to 10.)
Mike Haley, CEO of Cifas, pictured, said: “The Government’s 2023 Fraud Strategy was a good starting point, however, more needs to be done to tackle the epidemic of fraud. Our pledges set out the next generation of fraud reforms for a future government.”
Helena Wood, Director of Public Policy at Cifas, said: “Fraud is the crime to which UK adults are most likely to fall victim. We must prioritise this by creating a specific Minister for Economic Crime, providing ring-fenced resources for policing, and by ensuring social media and tech companies work with the counter-fraud community closely to fight fraud.”
Backing the pledges is Kathryn Westmore, Senior Research Fellow at the defence and security think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). She added: “While the UK seems to have got off the starting blocks, it will need to accelerate its efforts to keep up with ever-changing threat of fraud. Cifas’ Fraud Pledges 2024 reforms demonstrate how the UK’s response to fraud could evolve to strengthen the UK’s defences and provide better outcomes to victims.”
To officially launch the pledges, Cifas invited government officials and industry specialists for a VIP panel discussion at Portcullis House in central London. Co-hosted with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax, the debate, titled, ‘The UK Fraud Epidemic – Turning the Tide on Fraud and Scams’ included words from Haley, Labour front-bencher Emily Thornberry MP, and the Prime Minister’s anti-fraud champion Simon Fell MP. Senior Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge chaired. The group discussed ways forward to better protect the public and UK economy.
