A public-private Online Crime Centre (OCC), to share data and collaborate on interventions that eliminate online fraud at scale, is promised as part of the Government’s three-year fraud strategy.
The OCC, says the strategy, is set to begin operations in April 2026; and ‘will unite UK policing, the UK Intelligence Community (including GCHQ, the National Cyber Security Centre and the National Cyber Force) alongside private sector partners from the financial, telecommunications, technology, and cyber industries’. It will ‘initially’ focus on fraud and high-volume cyber crime.
The document admits ‘increasing number of fraud incidents, high value of fraud losses and harm from fraud’, and touches particularly on the telecommunications, online and financial services sectors. A ‘new, system-wide approach’ is promised, and as for all-important spending, the document says that the Government ‘will invest over ยฃ250m between 2026 and 2029 to deliver this Strategy’.
The document goes over three ‘pillars’: disrupt, safeguard and respond. A ministerial foreword admits that fraud is ‘consistently the largest reported crime type in England and Wales’ (the Westminster Government document doesn’t cover Scotland which has its own arrangements) and states that ‘this Government is determined to turn the tide’. Home Office Fraud Minister Lord Hanson said: “Fraudsters are exploiting new technology, industrialising their operations and targeting the British public at scale. Thatโs why weโre bringing together the key players in the system โ police, intelligence agencies, banks, mobile networks, regulators and tech companies โ to shut down the channels scammers rely on, wherever they operate from.
“Our new fraud strategy sets out how we will use every tool at our disposal to disrupt and dismantle criminal operations, bring fraudsters to justice and strengthen protection and support for victims.”
For his launch speech at London Guildhall in full visit the Home Office website.
As for educating people about the crime, the strategy speaks of expanding the Stop! Think Fraud campaign ‘to a broader range of fraud types’. As for responding to crime, the document points to Report Fraud, described as ‘the new, streamlined reporting service, to provide a robust and improved reporting mechanism for victims of fraud’, which while still under the City of London Police as lead force on economic crime replaces the unloved Action Fraud, which so under-performed that Scotland pulled out of it. Also promised is a Fraud Victims Charter; and – by 2029, the end of the strategy period – improved court process and ‘exploring additional civil law penalties, to ensure criminals face justice’.
The strategy points also to the Labour Governmentโs broader plans for Police Reform, as featured in the March edition of Professional Security Magazine; ‘whereby overall responsibility for Fraud, Economic Crime and Cyber Crime will transfer to the National Police Service (NPS) with the National Crime Agency (NCA)’.
For the 90-page document, sub-titled ‘Disrupting crime, supporting economic resilience and delivering justice’, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fraud-strategy-2026-to-2029.
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For the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) Joint Leads on Economic and Cyber Crime, Derbyshire PCC Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts and Chair of the City of London Police Authority Board Tijs Broeke, welcomed the ‘bold’ strategy. In a joint statement they said: โFraud is a malicious crime that can have devastating emotional and financial effects on those who fall victim to it. Its global scale, facilitated by technology, will only be tackled successfully if government, law enforcement and the technology sector work together which is why this fraud strategy is so vital.
โIt is clear policing cannot address the problem of fraud alone, so we support the creation of an Online Crime Centre which will pool expertise within government, policing, the intelligence agencies, banks, mobile phone networks and major tech companies to pursue a coordinated, technology-driven approach to targeting the organised crime groups behind frauds against individuals and businesses in this country.
โPolice and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Deputy Mayors will hold local forces to account on delivery of the strategyโs commitment to police prioritisation of fraud and to building consistent treatment victims can expect. If we are to identify and disrupt complex international frauds, there must be sustained investment in the skills and technology forces need at local and national level.”
Dave Rossi, Managing Director of the not-for-profit membership body National Hunter said:ย โStrengthening prevention and intelligence sharing to combat fraud is critical. Criminals are increasingly relying on AI to create synthetic IDs and deepfakes and elevate the accuracy and efficiency of fraud. These criminals are also working in organised groups and sharing tactics.
โWe must keep pace and employ the same tactics against them. Financial services have long been a test bed for what is now recognised as a growing economic and societal risk, requiring coordinated action across sectors. In financial services, fraud attempts are detectable at the point of application. But only by looking at data across multiple lenders can patterns be revealed and fraud prevented. Without intelligence sharing, this would be missed. The strategyโs focus on improving collaboration across industries and across private and public sectors is, therefore, a welcome sight.โ
