In 2024 4.1 million people were victims of fraud which alone made up 43 per cent of all crime affecting those aged over 16 in England and Wales, and the government’s National Fraud Strategy estimates that fraud costs UK society £6.8 billion a year.

But our policing institutions have not caught up with the scale of that change. We have a 1960s local policing structure trying to fight a 21st century cyber-enabled cross border crime. As a result, the police are achieving limited success and victims are receiving too little by way of service. Yet fraud is not a ‘victimless crime’. Recent Police Foundation research has shown that fraud can have a significant psychological as well as financial impact on those who experience it.

This report makes eight recommendations for change. These include a focus on crime prevention, organisational reform including the creation of a single national body to lead and coordinate the response to fraud, collaboration with the private sector, a national economic crime workforce and ring-fenced funds ensure tackling fraud is sufficiently resourced.