Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the comprehensiveness of the data gathered by the police about online fraud and attempted online fraud.

To fully understand the threat posed by fraud, this Government recognises the importance of having data which sets out the scale and nature of this type of criminality to then build an effective response. Action Fraud, which is overseen by City of London Police, is the national reporting centre for all frauds and cyber crimes, this is linked with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), also overseen by CoLP. (The NFIB analyses fraud data to identify links between seemingly unconnected crimes and assess information that may support investigation).

These capabilities enable policing to gather comprehensive data from the public, through crime and information reports, and wider industry partners, including the banking and retail sectors, to then build a national fraud intelligence picture. The NFIB also collects policing outcome data from all forces to understand impact. To improve data collection, City of London Police is implementing a new I.T system within Action Fraud and NFIB, due to go-live in Spring 2018, which will enhance reporting routes and analytical capability. This will further improve our collective understanding of the fraud threat.