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London: Britain risks of becoming a ‘haven for fraudsters’, Members of UK Parliament have warned.
A report by the cross-party parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has revealed that fraud has now become the dominant form of crime in the UK.
The MPs have criticised the government for not responding appropriately to the increasing number of fraudulent activities or economic crimes. The Home Office has been blamed for being “sluggish and outmanoeuvred” in its response to the growth of all forms of fraud.
The report added that both police morale and public trust have been undermined by “system failures”.
The committee’s chair, Dame Meg Hillier, said, “There is just no sign that government has a grip on fraud or an adequate strategy to address it, while victims are left to pay the price.”
Fraud now accounts for 41 per cent of crime in the UK. The growth has been attributed to the migration of organised gangs to online platforms which makes it more difficult to trace them.
“There were 3.8 million incidents of actual or attempted fraud in the year to June 2022, and nearly 7 per cent of adults in England and Wales experiencing fraud or at least an attempt. While those numbers increase, charges and summonses are dropping,” the report added.
UK govt suffers major losses to fraud
According to data released by the National Audit Office, the British government has suffered losses of billions of pounds to fraud in recent years. Regardless of the gravity of the issue, the government has only allotted one per cent of police resources to tackle fraud.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said government accounts pointed to fraud worth a total of 21 billion pounds ($25.87 billion) in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years – up from 5.5 billion pounds in the previous two years.
“There has been a substantial increase in the level of fraud reported in the annual reports and accounts we audit,” said NAO head Gareth Davies.
Davies added, “In addition to the loss of taxpayer money, it creates the risk that people come to perceive fraud and corruption across government as normal and tolerated. If not tackled, this could affect public confidence in the integrity of public services.”
Home Office unveils plan
Suella Braverman, UK’s home secretary, launched a plan on Thursday setting out guidelines of what public and private sectors are required to do to crack down on kleptocrats, money laundering, sanctions busting and fraud.
The plan also unveiled the deployment of an extra 475 financial investigators to help manage the problem of fraudulent activities.
Some experts have flagged concerns over the proposed plans. Maria Nizzero, a research fellow at the Rusi UK economic crime programme, said, “The plan places a welcome focus on the threat that the proceeds of kleptocracy and corruption pose to the UK’s national security interests.”
“However, the actions in the plan are a timid starting point. The response to transnational illicit finance needs to move beyond sanctions into long-term criminal justice responses,” she added.
With inputs from agencies
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