In a letter to The Times, Associate Darius Latham-Koenig argues that a proposal to create yet another ‘properly resourced specialist agency’ does not acknowledge the existing lattice of interested parties and organisations including the SFO and the NCA, and that doing so will exacerbate an existing serious lack of coordination. Instead, the government should solidify and sharpen the links between extant agencies by creating a fraud oversight secretariat.

Darius’ Letter to the Editor was published in The Times, 7 November 2024, here.

Sir, Lutz Schüler correctly identifies the scale of the fraud crimewave decimating personal and business confidence, here. However, his well-meaning insistence that the government create a “properly resourced specialist agency” fails to acknowledge the resources already devoted to this problem by a patchwork of interested parties, including, inter alia, the Serious Fraud Office, the National Crime Agency, the Public Sector Fraud Authority, Action Fraud and the prime minister’s anti-fraud champion.

Instead of forming yet another organisation to exacerbate a serious lack of co-ordination, the government should solidify and sharpen the links between extant agencies by creating a fraud oversight secretariat, implement a ring-fenced budget with real-terms funding increases for anti-fraud measures, and create a centrally held national database for fraud. These suggestions may serve to correct the “combination of arrogance, indolence and ignorance” identified by Lord Agnew of Oulton when he resigned as a minister in January 2022 over the government’s handling of fraudulent Covid business loans.