Keynote Speech - Vernon Coaker MP

This speech was given at the 192 Prove-ID Fraud Forum on September 18th 2008.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here in this historic sporting venue. I wanted to be here to show my support for the work you do in tackling fraud. Often unseen but hugely important.

It’s fantastic to see such a large audience – I’m conscious that I more often get to speak about fraud to law enforcement or banking audiences, so I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to a predominantly retail audience who I know work hard to tackle fraud in the business environment.

We all know that fraud is an important topic, this crime costs the country an estimated minimum of £14 billion a year, yet sadly it is often overlooked as being relatively harmless or somehow victimless. 

Well the individuals who lose an estimated £2.75 billion a year don’t see it as victimless; the businesses that see profits eroded and lose an estimated £3.76 billion a year don’t see it as victimless; and we in the government don’t see it as victimless.  We know all too well that fraud can be incredibly damaging for individuals, businesses, and the country as a whole.  

That is why, in partnership with businesses and law enforcement, we have worked over the last few years to invest in this area and radically change the anti fraud landscape. 

I know you have heard about the fraud review at previous events and so I won’t cover this in detail – but I do want to stress what a great opportunity the National Fraud Programme is. 

The new National Fraud Strategic Authority will, for the first time, help drive forward a nationwide policy on fraud.  The Authority, backed by Ministerial support across Whitehall, will work with stakeholders across business and law enforcement to direct policy and target areas of most serious concern.  

A new National Fraud Reporting Centre and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau will substantially improve the intelligence available to law enforcement, enabling more targeted operations.  The National Fraud Reporting Centre, which will enable the police to draw together comprehensive fraud intelligence will also work with law enforcement to tackle fraud facilitated through the internet.  We hope to make more announcements on the law enforcement response to internet fraud soon.

In addition to these new bodies the City of London Police will have a national remit to investigate serious and complex fraud.  Additional funding from Government and the Corporation of London will enable the City of London Police to recruit around 40 additional officers. 

I must stress, that this role is not a replacement for a local response to fraud and the City will also establish a centre of excellence in fraud investigation offering training, advice and best practice for local forces.  They will drive on what is done locally, acting as a catalyst for change. 

Over the years I have heard criticism of the police response to fraud, and calls for fraud to be made a policing priority.  I believe that the police and other enforcement agencies do much good work on fraud at both regional and national level.  At local level there are now a number of regional fraud forums covering most of the country.  These partnerships of police and local businesses share information and best practice with an aim of promoting fraud awareness and creating successful fraud prevention strategies across public and private sectors. 

I strongly support such a partnership approach and encourage you to join your local forum.  And I will continue to stress nationally, regionally and locally the importance of tackling fraud, not just large scale, but fraud that has an impact on individuals as well.

At national level the Serious Organised Crime Agency undertakes operations against fraud committed against individuals and the private sector, and the City of London Police operates the national intelligence databases for cheque and credit card crime and boiler room fraud, as well as taking on a national lead force role for investigation of complex and serious fraud.  And there is a specialist policing unit, the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit, funded by the banking industry, which tackles cheque and card fraud where there is an element of organised crime.

You may be aware of our recently published Green Paper on policing.  In this paper called “From the Neighbourhood to the National” we propose that the Home Office will take on a more strategic role and will no longer set nor maintain top-down numerical targets for individual police forces, giving them greater flexibility at local level. 

We intend however to set a demanding target on public confidence and will expect to see significant improvements in every force area.  Tackling fraud should be one of the ways we get that public confidence. The Green Paper is a consultation and I urge you to respond by 10 October.

Establishing identity is a vital element of fraud prevention and I’m sure many of you in this room will have a keen interest in identity issues and may be concerned about progress towards the national identity card scheme.     We will shortly unveil the Identity Card for foreign nationals, the first stage in the rollout of the national identity card.

So businesses, law enforcement, and the public will have an opportunity very soon to see what the ID card will look like.  By making the card available ahead of its introduction we hope to help ensure that those who will use the cards as businesses or individuals are able to recognise the card and understand how it can be used.

The first of these cards will be issued to foreign nationals in November followed by identity cards for British workers in sensitive roles and locations in 2009 and to young people in 2010. 

The introduction of identity cards will provide a convenient and secure means to protect our identities by locking it to one person using their fingerprints. Being able to establish a single, secure identity will help us to tackle the problem of fraud, in particular identity fraud which so often lies behind other types of fraud.

Another area that is crucial to tackling fraud is data sharing.  Data sharing between organisations can help to identify and prevent fraudulent behaviour by individuals.  Quite correctly data sharing is surrounded by controls and checks – vital for the protection of individuals – but we also want to help the public sector share data more effectively with the private sector for the purposes of preventing fraud.  

The specification of anti-fraud organisations under section 68 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 will allow public sector information to be shared, through those organisations, with the private sector to enable fraud to be detected, targeted and prevented on a much wider scale.  From early October this improved ability to share data will benefit both the public and private sectors and will help provide a more comprehensive response to a serious and ever-present problem.  

Turning specifically to Card Not Present fraud – I think we would all agree that the internet is a wonderful thing – and has brought great opportunities for many people.   Sadly of course it has also brought opportunities to criminals who use technology to commit fraud.  I have regular contact with the card industry through meetings with APACS the UK payments association and earlier this year I met both with APACS representatives and with representatives of banks and card issuers more widely specifically to discuss Card Not Present fraud.  I was keen to hear more about the industry’s strategic response to CNP fraud and also to explore ways in which the government could assist.  We had an extremely constructive meeting and I was heartened to hear about technical solutions such as Verified by Visa and Mastercard Secure Code. 

I will be meeting APACS again soon to hear more about how they and we might continue to tackle card not present fraud. 

I am aware, as I know some of you are, that APACS will be co-ordinating a campaign designed to help consumers shop safely online.  The Be Card Smart campaign, in which the finance and retail industries are participating together, offers a clear message and is an important step in getting a message out to consumers that they can shop safely over the internet if they just take a few common sense precautions.  People don’t think twice about protecting their cards in the real world, so why should they treat them any more casually in the virtual world?  I am lending my support to this campaign and would urge those of you that can get involved to do so.