Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions officials from her Department have had with the City of London Police on the performance of Action Fraud in the last 12 months.

The City of London Police (CoLP) is subject to ongoing scrutiny, in terms of both performance and financial management of the Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau capabilities; this is an explicit condition of the funding arrangements. CoLP is also subject to a Ministerially approved improvement plan, which is overseen by officials, who meet CoLP on a regular basis to monitor progress and to ensure delivery.

We have seen significant improvement in performance; official figures show reports of fraud have trebled since Action Fraud was rolled out nationally, addressing the concern that fraud was an underreported crime type. The number of crime packages disseminated to local forces to consider investigation has also increased significantly, raising from around 40,000 in 13/14 to 75,000 in 14/15.