Member

In addition, the Government are refreshing the strategic policing requirement to reflect the seriousness of the fraud threat and ensure all forces prioritise their response. The updated SPR will guide police and crime commissioners, strengthen collaboration with national fraud capabilities, and include digital skills training to equip officers for modern challenges. To that extent, we have already recruited around 400 new specialist investigators to join the national fraud squad, led by the National Crime Agency’s National Economic Crime Centre and City of London Police, with more recruitment following in the year, to disrupt these crimes by taking—as the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, set out—a proactive, intelligence-led approach to identifying and disrupting the most serious fraudsters, domestically and overseas, jointly with the Government and industry, so that victims do not experience fraud in the first place. We absolutely agree with the point that he made.