2024 Publications

We saw some small reductions in the amount stolen through payment fraud in 2023, but with losses of nearly £1.2 billion it remains a major problem and threat to the UK.

The damage this crime does is huge. The organised criminals and other threat actors who perpetrate these awful crimes cause serious harm to individuals, to society and to our country.

Fraud in all its forms continues to represent over 40 per cent of reported crime. That is the scale of the challenge we continue to face.

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Fraud is at epidemic levels in the UK, and it is becoming increasingly more organised and sophisticated. The picture is no different amongst organisations involved in recruitment.

The Better Hiring Institute and its collaborators have defined Hiring Fraud as any fraud committed during the hiring process; this may be committed by an individual against an organisation, or committed by an entity against a work seeker.

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Driven through the work of the Counter Fraud Function, everyone involved in public services must play their part in transforming the way the public sector is protected from fraud. From helping departments to manage fraud risks, to taking effective action and pursuing fraudsters where fraud does occur, we as government will continue to collectively fight fraud against the public purse.

The Counter Fraud Functional Strategy for 2024-2027 should drive efforts and set out where the Function will go but noticeably the strategy is currently underwhelming, has no measurable objectives, with few ideas on how fraud can actually be reduced and there are no commitments to spending!

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On 18 March 2024, the Sentencing Council published a response to the third annual consultation on miscellaneous amendments to sentencing guidelines, and made changes to a number of the sentencing guidelines. Relevant to MFF members, the Council was made aware of a potential difficulty in sentencing cases where there is little or no financial harm but a high level of non-financial impact on the victim. As a result the fraud guideline will be amended from 1 April 2024 to give increased recognition to the impact on victims in circumstances where there is no or limited financial loss with the wording: "Serious detrimental effect on the victim whether financial or otherwise (including emotional and psychological harm)".

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The government has introduced new ‘failure to prevent offences’ for bribery and fraud, and two facilitation of criminal tax evasion offences (in the UK and abroad) since 2010, and in 2023 legislated for a major reform of the underlying rules for holding corporations to account. But as the number of corporate offences have grown, there has been little corresponding focus on ensuring the legislation for holding senior executives to account is fit for purpose. Without further targeted reforms, it is unlikely the new corporate offences will be accompanied by an upswing in senior executive accountability.

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