The Joint Fraud Taskforce has met. That’s a partnership between the government, law enforcement and the private sector, as relaunched in October 2021, when several voluntary charters by industry sectors were launched. The Home Office’s new Security Minister Tom Tugendhat chairs the taskforce. From Government, Paul Scully, Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, and Treasury Lords Minister Baroness Penn were also in attendance.
The meeting heard an update on the Retail Banking Charter. In practice, it means bank and building society staff will provide victims with the same guidance on how to report a crime, how they may be able to get their money back, and where they can get support and advice.
Mr Tugendhat said on November 21: “I was delighted to lead a discussion of the renewed Joint Fraud Taskforce today, meeting with industry leaders to discuss how we can work together to fight fraud and provide better support for victims.
“Fraud is a hidden tax on people across our country and is a national security problem too. It funds criminal states and drug dealers and many more. I’m determined to fight it. The banking industry has risen to that challenge and set a clear benchmark, which I am keen to see rolled out across other industries. Many phone companies have done the same, we need the tech firms to follow.”
Background
An original taskforce with much the same members dates from 2016, and when the Home Secretary was Theresa May. As Mr Tugendhat hinted, but did not detail, other charters date from autumn 2021, such as telecoms, and accountancy; but not one specifically by and for ‘big tech’.
A previous Treasury minister responsible for counter-fraud, Lord Agnew, resigned in January while giving a speech in the Lords, supposedly to defend the government, only to criticise its poor handling of fraudulent covid business loans from spring 2020.
Numerous reports have pointed to the sorry state of fraud prevention, detection and investigation in the UK; such as by the National Audit Office (NAO), and a House of Lords committee. The NAO found that since a previous disapproving report in 2017, the Home Office as the department responsible for countering fraud had made some limited actions to improve its response, but is not yet leading an effective cross-government approach and has had limited influence over its partners in the public and private sectors. The House of Lords Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud Committee complained of a mind-boggling variety of departments, agencies and ministers with responsibility for tackling fraud, which leads to inefficient policymaking and a lack of accountability.
The Lords committee report noted that the taskforce is due to publish a fourth, Tech Sector Charter ‘in the near future’. The charters are however voluntary. Mr Tugendhat told the committee that the taskforce has ‘the intention of coming up with strategies and policies that will make a difference’.
