Why?
Fraud is evolving – and fast. Around 70 per cent of UK fraud has international roots or connections.
This research aims to improve our understanding of how organised fraud is impacting the UK and the law enforcement response to it. It also aims to develop a comparative view on how the response is structured and delivered in jurisdictions outside the UK. The overarching aim of the project is to import best practice to the UK and to support the development of a more coordinated response to tackling organised fraud in the UK and other countries.
How?
The research will address the following questions:
- What are the ways in which fraud is ‘organised’ in the UK?
- What are the strategic and operational implications of fraud’s ‘organised’ nature for law enforcement in the UK and how is the law enforcement response structured across different tiers of policing (e.g. at a regional, national and international levels), in terms of resources, capabilities, policies and protocols?
- How does the UK’s law enforcement response to organised fraud compare to the (regional, national and international) responses in a select number of other jurisdictions?
- Based on the answers to the above research questions, how could UK law enforcement develop, in partnership with other jurisdictions, a more effective, coordinated, cross-border response to organised fraud?
The project will combine a desk-based review of existing literature and policy documents and interviews with law enforcement and professionals involved in responding to organised fraud in the UK and five other countries.
Project team
Dr Bina Bhardwa, Professor Jessica Jacobson, Professor Mai Sato, Dr Michael Skidmore and Elisabeth Aitkenhead
Get in touch
If you would like to get in touch with the Police Foundation about this project please email