Brandon Lewis corrected a written answer on City of London Police: Action Fraud

8 October 2019 · Commons written answer · Home Office

John Spellar (Labour, Warley) asked written question 290643 on 25 September 2019. Brandon Lewis answered on 8 October 2019 for the Home Office, and Brandon Lewis corrected the answer on 8 October 2019. The corrected text no longer gives the figures 14,124, 192,256,, 22,133. Altogether 303 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the management of Action Fraud by the City of London Police.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
The ~~Government’s Joint Fraud Taskforce (a coalition between government, industry,~~ law enforcement and the ~~third sector) continues~~ to ~~lead an ambitious programme~~ of work to design out and prevent fraud that occurs both online and offline. This includes the Take Five fraud awareness campaign, designed to urge the public and businesses to take time to consider whether a situation they find themselves in is genuine. Online personal scams are increasingly perpetrated via cyber-enabled methods. To protect victims, the Government set up the National ~~Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)~~ in October 2016. The NCSC is the UK’s technical authority on cyber security and provides a single, central body for cyber security at a national level. The NCSC works very closely with law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community to help prevent, disrupt and investigate cyber-crime and other online cyber related threats. In 2018 the NCSC took down 22,133 phishing campaigns, including 14,124 UK government-related phishing sites, and the total number of takedowns of fraudulent websites was 192,256, across 2018, with 64% of them down in 24 hours.	The City of London Police undertake a national lead force role for the investigation of serious and complex fraud cases. The Home Office remains committed to improving the law enforcement response to fraud. That is why we requested that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) conduct a thematic inspection on fraud, including Action Fraud, and set out measures for improving the response to fraud in our Economic Crime Plan, which was published in July. The City of London Police (as the National Lead Force for fraud) is currently implementing recommendations within HMICFRS’ inspection report, which was published on 2 nd April. The scale and complexity of the threat from serious and organised crime means that we need to do more to develop our response. The Government therefore recently announced a formal review to identify the powers, capabilities, governance and funding needed in response to this threat.

Original

Corrected

The ~~Government’s Joint Fraud Taskforce (a coalition between government, industry,~~ law enforcement and the ~~third sector) continues~~ to ~~lead an ambitious programme~~ of work to design out and prevent fraud that occurs both online and offline. This includes the Take Five fraud awareness campaign, designed to urge the public and businesses to take time to consider whether a situation they find themselves in is genuine.
Online personal scams are increasingly perpetrated via cyber-enabled methods. To protect victims, the Government set up the National ~~Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)~~ in October 2016. The NCSC is the UK’s technical authority on cyber security and provides a single, central body for cyber security at a national level. The NCSC works very closely with law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community to help prevent, disrupt and investigate cyber-crime and other online cyber related threats. In 2018 the NCSC took down 22,133 phishing campaigns, including 14,124 UK government-related phishing sites, and the total number of takedowns of fraudulent websites was 192,256, across 2018, with 64% of them down in 24 hours.

The City of London Police undertake a national lead force role for the investigation of serious and complex fraud cases. The Home Office remains committed to improving the law enforcement response to fraud. That is why we requested that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) conduct a thematic inspection on fraud, including Action Fraud, and set out measures for improving the response to fraud in our Economic Crime Plan, which was published in July. The City of London Police (as the National Lead Force for fraud) is currently implementing recommendations within HMICFRS’ inspection report, which was published on 2 nd April.
The scale and complexity of the threat from serious and organised crime means that we need to do more to develop our response. The Government therefore recently announced a formal review to identify the powers, capabilities, governance and funding needed in response to this threat.

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1145756?expandMember=true
Date read	15 October 2026
SHA-256	`277c17d6acc999b20807d049ab8222b5a80bb935518bf8d8ce358eafaa892f2b`