The UK government’s updated Fraud Strategy for 2026-2029
Fraud remains one of the most prevalent crimes in the UK, affecting individuals, businesses, and costing the UK economy billions each year. To address this growing issue, on 9 March 2026, the UK Government published the "Fraud Strategy 2026-2029: Disrupting Crime, Supporting Economic Resilience and Delivering Justice". This strategy sets out the Government's updated approach to tackling fraud, replacing the earlier strategy "Fraud Strategy: Stopping Scams and Protecting the Public", which covered the period 2023 to 2025.
Fraud has evolved significantly in recent years, becoming more digital, global, and technologically advanced. The strategy recognises this shift and aims to work more closely with law enforcement agencies, regulators, and private sector organisations to tackle fraud effectively.
The strategy is built around three main pillars: Disrupt. Safeguard. Respond.
We take a closer look below at what this means for individuals and businesses. This is just a summary of some of the key measures introduced by the strategy and full details can be found in the strategy itself or in the bullet point summaries provided in the document.
Disrupting fraud infrastructure
The Online Crime Centre
One of the standout developments in the strategy is the creation of a £31 million Online Crime Centre, which is set to launch in April 2026. The centre will bring together law enforcement agencies (such as UK policing, the UK Intelligence Community and and private sector partners from industries such as financial services, telecommunications, and technology.
The OCC is designed to accelerate the UK’s response to online crime, initially focussed on fraud and high-volume cyber-crime. It will provide the structure and technology to facilitate the sharing of data across different partners, analyse trends and intelligence, and subsequently inform and coordinate high impact law enforcement interventions.
Tackling fraud at source
The strategy notes the positive impacts of supporting foreign law enforcement in tackling large-scale scam operations in Nigeria and India.
The Government has entered into joint action plans with Nigeria and Vietnam regarding measures to share intelligence and to disrupt cross-border networks. The Government commits to pursuing further such agreements with other high-priority countries which will also involve strengthening local law enforcement and regulatory frameworks.
The UK will also sponsor the Global Fraud Summit in Vienna in March 2026, bringing together organisations such as INTERPOL and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Another key focus is the continued use of sanctions to disrupt overseas actors who are involved in fraud against UK citizens.
Telecommunications infrastructure
The strategy also acknowledges the ongoing vulnerabilities in the telecommunications sector, including the ease with which fraudsters can obtain UK phone numbers and send fraudulent text messages at scale. To address this, the Home Office plans to launch a Call for Evidence in 2026 on measures to reduce anonymity within the telecoms ecosystem and strengthen accountability across the sector. It is also exploring the creation of a centralised digital tool to manage UK telephone numbers, which could help providers trace suspicious activity and block fraudulent calls more quickly.
Safeguard
This pillar is focussed on:
- Building resilience;
- Reducing vulnerability; and
- Combatting financial exploitation.
Public awareness
The Government is therefore committed to raising public awareness about fraud risks. It plans to expand the “Stop! Think Fraud” campaign to help people better understand how fraud works and its risks together with other initiatives designed to educate consumers, school children, university students and small organisations.
PROTECT Network
The strategy highlights the critical role of the PROTECT network (an existing network of local, regional, and national law enforcement officers) across England and Wales in delivering targeted fraud messaging to mitigate threats. From 2026, the Government and law enforcement agencies propose that they will implement proactive, intelligence-led PROTECT activities at a local level. Additionally, the Home Office will collaborate with the City of London Police to align the Fraud and Cyber PROTECT networks. These initiatives are an attempt to coordinate a multi-agency approach to fraud prevention across police forces, ensuring consistency in pooling data and resources.
Financial exploitation
In combatting financial exploitation, the Government acknowledges that the most vulnerable individuals are particularly at risk from financial exploitation, including exploitative money laundering. To address this, the strategy highlights collaboration between the Home Office, the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), The Children’s Society, and the City of London Police. These organisations will have different roles to identify barriers to addressing exploitative money laundering, develop targeted solutions, establish a clear referral pathway for victims, and enhance strategic coordination across relevant bodies.
Respond
Enhancing investigative capabilities
The new strategy seeks to address fraud crimes by expanding specialist investigative teams within the City London Police, National Crime Agency, Regional Organised Crime Units and the National Fraud Squad. The strategy states the need to improving digital investigation capabilities and the utilisation of AI tools to assist in recovering proceeds of crime.
In collaboration with Ofcom and industry partners, the Home Office is developing a National Telecommunications Traceback Scheme. This initiative is designed to enable investigators to trace fraudulent calls and texts, identify repeat offenders, and gather robust evidence to support prosecutions and civil actions. It also seeks to strengthen coordination between police forces, prosecutors, and regulators.
The strategy introduces several new developments, including the establishment of an economic crime profession by 2029 to complement existing counter-fraud professions. Additionally, new business-funded units will be created to specialise in addressing fraud targeting businesses, with an initial focus on the retail sector.
Delivering civil and criminal justice outcomes
The government indicates a broader ambition to improve criminal justice outcomes in fraud cases, which have historically been criticised for low prosecution rates relative to the scale of the problem. The strategy recognises that one of the challenges is the complexity of evidence involved in fraud investigations. To ensure faster resolution and minimise delays in bringing serious offenders to justice, the Government plans to introduce judge-only trials for the most complex fraud cases by the end of this Parliament.
The strategy also highlights the adoption of AI tools to streamline investigations and free up police hours.
The strategy also places significant emphasis on delivering meaningful outcomes for victims. Proposed measures include piloting civil actions to enhance access to compensation and improve asset recovery processes for those affected.
The strategy briefly recognises that fraud can also be committed by businesses. Under the “failure to prevent fraud” offence introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, large organisations are required to implement procedures to prevent fraudulent activities carried out by associated persons.
Does the strategy deliver on government promises?
In March 2025, Fraud Minister Lord Hanson promised an ambitious approach to tackling fraud, with a focus on data sharing, technology, international cooperation, tackling fraud against businesses, confidence in online platforms, public awareness, AI and criminal justice outcomes. The new strategy addresses many of these areas, particularly data sharing, telecoms, international cooperation and public awareness.
However, it remains to be seen as to whether the new strategy goes far enough particularly in relation to the growing role of artificial intelligence in enabling and also tackling fraud. The strategy it provides relatively limited detail on how emerging technologies will be regulated or addressed in practice. Similarly, while the strategy recognises that fraud increasingly affects businesses as well as individuals, much of the public messaging continues to focus primarily on consumer scams. This provides less focus on fraud affecting businesses than might have been hoped for.
In short, the Fraud Strategy 2026-2029 is the latest attempt at moving towards a coordinated national response to fraud in its ever-evolving landscape. Its success, however, will depend on how well it is implemented and the levels of cooperation received from multiple bodies with a fraud prevention role (including telecoms and tech platforms, international organisations, and the justice system).
For individuals and businesses, staying informed and proactive will remain essential as fraud continues to evolve.
If you have concerns about how these changes might affect you or your organisation, please get in touch with Ben Hay or a member of VWV's specialist Fraud team.
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