The Fraud Review and the policing of fraud: laying the foundations for a centralized fraud police or counter fraud executive?

The recent United Kingdom (UK) Fraud Review Final Report made 62 recommendations on a wide range of issues across the breadth of the criminal justice system, all of which were accepted by the government. This paper aims to generate further debate on the recommendations vis-à-vis the future of fraud investigation. The paper begins by examining some of the main recommendations of the UK Fraud Review before exploring the growing pressures on fraud investigation in the UK. The paper argues that the Fraud Review, combined with these growing pressures, is laying the foundations for the further centralization of fraud investigation. The authors argue that there are two potential models for the centralization of the policing of fraud: a National Fraud Police or National Counter Fraud Executive, and the authors also argue that the latter offers the best model for the longer term, for effectively tackling fraud in the UK.