Stop! What should organisations Think of the new UK Fraud Strategy?
On 9 March 2026, in meeting its manifesto commitment, the UK Government published its long-foreshadowed Fraud Strategy 2026-2029.
The new Strategy sets out the current threats to the UK, the actions already being taken and, critically, a direction of travel. All stakeholders in the fraud prevention and response ecosystem should take notice of the Strategy and use it to inform their approach and operational alignment.
Background
The previous three-year Fraud Strategy was published in 2023 and was adopted by the Labour Government when it appointed Sir David Hanson as the UK’s first Fraud Minister. It set out to “stop fraud at source”, together with a target of reducing fraud by 10% against 2019 levels by December 2024.
Whilst the 2023 reduction target was not met, other commitments in the previous Fraud Strategy (including giving Companies House new powers to reduce the use of corporate entities to facilitate fraud and the implementation of the APP fraud reimbursement scheme) have been delivered. The question now is can the new Strategy improve further the UK’s resilience to fraud, given the growing scale, complexity and pace of change of the threat?
What is the Fraud Strategy?
Over the past year, the Home Office has engaged with industry leaders, law enforcement agencies, academic experts, and civil society organisations with a view to delivering a new national fraud strategy for what The National Security Strategy identifies as “the most common and one of the most corrosive threats facing individuals and businesses in the UK.
The resulting Fraud Strategy 2026-2029 sets out, at a high level, the Government’s approach to tackling fraud over the next three years. It commits to investing £250m in fraud prevention over this period, with a focus on disrupting the methods used by criminals, strengthening protection for the public and businesses, and improving how victims are supported.
The Three Pillars
The new Strategy is much wider than the previous Strategy. It is split into three pillars, each one with a core Government-backed element and numerous further proposals giving indications of future policy, potential legislation and evolving regulation:
- The Disrupt pillar: Intends to cut off the tools, technologies and platforms that criminals rely on – it includes the launch of an Online Crime Centre (see below).
- The Safeguard pillar: Focusses on strengthening public and business resilience through proactive policing, clear guidance – the existing Stop! Think Fraud education and awareness campaign will be expanded.
- The Respond pillar: Aims to improve victim support and confidence including via the new Report Fraud service and contemplates strengthening civil and criminal powers to bring offenders to justice.
Key Announcements
- Online Crime Centre – The government has committed £31m to launch a new Online Crime Centre from April 2026. Its stated aim is to bring together law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and industry bodies to share data and coordinate interventions at large scale against online fraud. It is an open question whether the OCC can meet the often-cited challenge to collaboration between agencies and industry: efficient (and compliant) data sharing which allows effective response to new and evolving threats.
- Calls for evidence – The Home Office states it intends to launch further calls for evidence across key areas including: (1) barriers to sharing information (including cross-border and private sector data-sharing challenges); (2) measures to reduce anonymity and strengthen accountability within the UK communications sector; and (3) the scale, drivers, and enablers of fraud to create an improved evidence base for looking at how to tackle it.
- Report Fraud – The Government will work with the City of London police to embed and operate the new Report Fraud service, no doubt hoping to improve confidence in law enforcement’s fraud response which had waned due to the perceptions of the previous service: Action Fraud. The Report Fraud service aims to provide an efficient mechanism for victims to report that enables swifter police intervention and more comprehensive victim support.
- Stop! Think Fraud – The Home Office will strengthen this public awareness campaign to a broader range of fraud types impacting individuals and small businesses, particularly high harm frauds (i.e. those causing severe financial and emotional damage).
Commentary
The Strategy identifies the scale of the harm that fraud causes to and in the UK:
Fraud, as a technology-enabled hybrid threat, challenges national security, presents an obstacle to growth, and affects society far beyond its immediate victims. Fraud also forms part of a wider network of serious and organised crime, including cyber crime and money laundering.
The Strategy demonstrates that the government is serious about reducing fraud and also indicates its willingness to take a leading role in disrupting fraud originating internationally.
However, the limited scale of central funding (£250m across three years) compared to the cast cost of fraud to the UK (£14bn a year) begs the question: can the Strategy meet the scale and complexity of the fraud threat and, ultimately, make a material difference.
The Strategy identifies tens of “Delivery Partners”[1] who are expected to deliver the Strategy, highlighting the breadth of impact of fraud across the UK and the organisational challenge to effective collaboration.
There is also a notable absence of specific proposals to impose further obligations or duties on non-financial services participants in the fraud-enabling supply chain, particularly social media companies. The Strategy notes that those in the financial services sectors are often the last line of defence and have invested heavily in fraud prevention and “taken significant steps to combat fraud”. However, regarding online platforms, the Strategy relies on the existing frameworks (e.g. the Online Fraud Charter, the Online Safety Act and oversight by Ofcom). Additionally, given how quickly technology-enabled fraud evolves, specific responses risk obsolescence before they can be aired, let alone consulted upon and implemented.
The Strategy can be seen as further recognition that any new anti-fraud legislation, such as the Economic Crime and Corporate Security Act, needs real institutional support. The direction of travel remains very clear: every organisation and sector has a role to play in preventing (and responding to) fraud – whether they are captured by the Failure to Prevent Fraud offence (see here), the variation to the corporate attribution doctrine (see here and developing further under the Crime and Policing Bill), the Online Safety Act (see here) or more generally pursuant to regulators’ expectations and/or societal duties of proper corporate governance.
As such, those previously responsible for fraud prevention procedures will now likely be studying the Strategy and how they can engage and operationalise against these elevated expectations, across:
Disrupt:
- Data and intelligence sharing processes
- Supplier and third party risks
Safeguard:
- Meeting regulators updated expectations or regulatory obligations
- Enhanced customer/client engagement and security
Respond:
- Best practice incident response
- Appropriate fraud risk management and self-reporting procedures
Article co-authored by Jonathan Wright.
[1] 32 public bodies, law enforcement and intelligence; the three key sectors (Financial Services, Telecommunications and Technology); and other unspecified Public, Civil Society and Non-Government Organisations who contribute expertise, research and advocacy.
