Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland outlined the Government’s response to comments on its proposals to modernise fraud laws to better equip police and prosecutors to deal with the challenge of combating fraud in the 21st century.
Speaking at the recent Association of Certified Fraud Examiners conference, Baroness Scotland said the Government’s consultation proposals received broad positive support for a general offence of fraud. The Government now plans to take these proposals forward in a Fraud Bill when Parliamentary time allows. The proposals are based on a new general offence of fraud which could be committed in three ways – by false representation, by wrongfully failing to disclose information and by abuse of position. Current laws focus on specific frauds and do not adequately tackle the wide range of possible fraudulent activity or keep pace with rapidly developing technology.
Baroness Scotland said: "Fraud is a widespread and growing offence, estimated to cost the UK economy £14 billion a year. It is an alarming figure, and shows that fraud affects us all, even if we are not direct victims. The current statutory offences do not cover the range of frauds which can be committed or keep pace with modern technology. The Government is determined to equip police and prosecutors with a modern legislative framework to face the challenge of combating fraud in the 21st century. I am pleased that we have received broad stakeholder and public support for our consultation proposals. Our proposals will overhaul the law to simplify it, plug the gaps and make it easier to secure just convictions. The only major issue of concern was the repeal of the common law conspiracy to defraud, and we will meet that concern by retaining this crime, which underpins the new offences. When Parliamentary time allows, we hope to introduce a Fraud Bill to put these proposals into law. It is vital that we have laws which are responsive and effective to the society we live in, so they build victims’ confidence that the criminal justice system is on their side."
The Government says it has taken on board a number of key issues from its consultation responses, which will inform a future Fraud Bill, including: general offence of fraud – the majority of respondents agree that the focus should be on the offender’s behaviour and the gravity of the offence depends on their intention not the result; disclosure of information – the Government will ensure that failure to disclose information will not be fraud unless a legal duty is breached; retention of the common law offence of conspiracy to defraud – many respondents argued it would be rash to repeal this as it provides flexibility in dealing with a wide variety of frauds; the Government accepts the arguments and will retain conspiracy to defraud; extension of fraudulent trading to non-corporate traders – the majority of respondents supported the new offence and the Government proposes to enact it; new offence of possessing equipment to commit frauds – this was widely welcomed by respondents and the Government proposes to enact it.
