The Economic Security and Cyber Crime Committee convened to review performance reports, discuss innovation and growth initiatives, and address public complaints related to Action Fraud¹. The committee reviewed the National Lead Force City of London Police Performance Report, the Policing Plan Performance Report, and the Summary of Action Fraud Public Complaints Data. Members also discussed updates on cyber and economic crime-related activities.

National Lead Force Performance

The committee received the Quarter 1 National Lead Force City of London Police Performance Report, which assesses the City of London Police's performance against the objectives in the National Policing Strategy for Fraud, Economic and Cyber Crime 2023-28². The report highlighted the force's work towards:

• Improving outcomes for victims
• Proactively pursuing offenders
• Protecting people and businesses from fraud, economic and cyber crime

Key performance indicators included disruptions of organised crime groups, victim care, and judicial outcomes. According to the report, social media impressions and protect disruptions have exceeded the Home Office target. The Victim Care Unit is currently providing services for 4,999 victims linked to ongoing investigations. Additionally, the National Lead Force has exceeded its Home Office set target for judicial outcomes due to a number of outcomes linked to two large investigations in Quarters 1 and 2.

The report also noted a continued drop in National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) performance due to staff training abstractions, and that Action Fraud satisfaction has fallen 6% below the Home Office target overall for 2024/25.

Policing Plan Performance

The committee reviewed the Policing Plan Performance Report for Quarter 1 of 2025/26, focusing on Priority 2, 'Put victims at the heart of everything we do', and Priority 3 'Improve the national policing response to fraud, economic and cyber-crime', of the Policing Plan 2025.

The National Economic Crime Victim Care Unit (NECVCU) supports local forces, delivering care to victims of fraud and cybercrime, allowing for a consistent and national standard of care and support. The Level 1 service gives Protect/Prevent advice to non-vulnerable victims of fraud, and the Level 2 service engages with victims when vulnerability is identified.

The report noted an increase in repeat victims of fraud, but stated that this has stayed consistently at an average of 0.2% and never exceeded 80 victims or 0.5% in a quarter. Results from Quarter 1 show that 75% of respondents felt more confident following contact with the level 2 service, 72% felt safer, and an overall 96% were satisfied with the service provided.

The report stated that there were 1,876 engagement events recorded under the fraud and cyber protect response type this quarter, a 40% increase in comparison to Quarter 1 2024/25. 98% of attendees were either very satisfied or satisfied with the event, and 66% were likely to change their behaviour as a direct result of the event.

The City of London Police, through the Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting and Analysis Service (FCCRAS) programme, is delivering the replacement service for Action Fraud. The new service will deliver much-enhanced reporting and analytical services which align with the strategic aims of HMG's Fraud Strategy and the National Cyber Strategy. The FCCRAS programme is currently reporting as 'AMBER' due to the programme now having an approved plan with a new delivery partner for the Lot 1 component of the programme.

Action Fraud Complaints

The committee received a report summarising public complaints data related to Action Fraud for Quarter 1 of 2025/26. During this period, Action Fraud recorded 147,481 reports on the National Fraud Information Database, comprising 100,861 crime reports and 46,620 information reports.

A total of 107 cases were logged in Quarter 1 2025/26, which is an overall decrease of 7 cases from Quarter 4 2024/25. There were 118 allegations recorded in Quarter 1 2025/26, a decrease of 26 allegations from Quarter 4 2024/25. The majority of these allegations (86/118) relate to 'Police action following contact', generally referring to the investigative expectations held by those reporting a fraud.

Innovation and Growth

The committee received an update on Innovation & Growth's (IG) work related to cyber and economic crime, focusing on collaboration between IG and the City of London Police (CoLP) and the Police Authority (PA).

The report highlighted IG's advocacy for the continuation of CoLP's role as National Lead Force for fraud. IG continues to work with the PA team and other key CoLC stakeholders, advocating for the continuation of CoLP's role as National Lead Force for fraud.

On 23 June, the Policy Chairman (CPR) met with Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, and CPR sent a letter to Andrew Bailey on the threat to the CoLP's National Lead Force role in the government's police reform plans.

On 15 July, the Lord Mayor (LM) hosted the annual Financial & Professional Services Dinner, where the Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her second Mansion House speech to senior representatives of the sector. IG included a reference to the strategic role that the CoLP's plays as National Lead Force for fraud in the LM's speech, and invited Deputy Commissioner Nik Adams to the Financial & Professional Services Dinner, where he had the chance to speak to the Chancellor on the work of the CoLP and the need for the tech sector to do more to tackle fraud.

IG hosted a private industry roundtable entitled Scaling a Digital Verification Orchestrator in the UK on 17 July, to discuss the market landscape and preconditions for scaling an effective digital verification (DV) service in the UK through delivery of an orchestration model. This followed the publication of Securing growth: the digital verification opportunity, a CoLC publication produced in collaboration with Ernst & Young. The roundtable included 30 stakeholders from across financial services including key civil servants from the Department for Business and Trade, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Financial Conduct Authority.

IG and the PA team are exploring the possibility of hosting Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) UK-US banking bilateral meeting in London in January 2026.