Will the future policing of fraud be ‘a fundamental shift in our approach to tackling fraud’ or largely more of the same? Reviewing the 2023 UK fraud strategy through evidence on the ground

In 2023, the UK government issued a national Fraud Strategy in response to concernsover increases in reported fraud and the low levels of law enforcement resourceavailable to investigate cases. The Strategy was announced as a fundamental shift inhow the government intended to respond to frauds and attempted frauds againstindividuals. The article focusses on the evidence base that may be assumed tounderpin and shape any strategy by assessing and analysing the data what wouldhave been available at the time the Strategy was drafted.The article argues that the Strategy has not taken any time to explore paststrategies and any lessons to be learned and nor did it appear to substantivelyaccessed, used, analysed and interpreted the available data, and nor used that data asan evidence base to develop an approach will have to be strategic, prioritised andinnovative. The article concludes that, in strategic terms, the Strategy may be unlikelyto achieve its objectives.