What more can be done by the Met to tackle fraud and cybercrime?

The consequences of fraud can be absolutely devastating, which is why I have committed in my Police and Crime Plan to protect people and businesses from cyber-crime and fraud. The nature of fraud is evolving, with 90 percent now cyber enabled. Unlike other crimes it does not have a physical footprint, and as such any strategic response needs to be driven at a national level. However, I still want to ensure the MPS effectively responds to these crimes. This includes a £187 million investment in transforming MPS technologies, providing the resources to develop MPS capabilities for dealing with serious and organised crime, online fraud and cybercrime.

The MPS is increasing resources to support its Economic Crime team, which tackles fraud. Its new Emerging Threats team deals with sophisticated cyber threats and the MPS is investing in new bespoke capabilities to enable the team to combat cyber-enabled fraud. The MPS Cyber Protect and Prepare team are also in the process of updating the MPS Little Media Series, a collection of online and print media booklets designed to raise awareness and prevent people becoming victims of the most common types of fraud and cyber-crime. The Met works in partnership with the Police Digital Security Centre, soon to be the Regional Cyber Resilience Centre, to help protect and prepare SMEs in London. MOPAC and my Chief Digital Officer are closely aligned to this work.

The City of London Police is the National policing lead for economic crime. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau receives millions of reports of fraud and cybercrime (reported via Action Fraud) to identify serial offenders, organised crime groups and find emerging crime types.