The National Fraud Authority (NFA) was an

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Nort ...

of the United Kingdom Home Office responsible for increasing protection for the British economy from the harm caused by fraud. The NFA worked with a wide range of partners with the aim of making

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

more difficult to commit in the UK. Formerly the National Strategic Fraud Authority, it was set up in October 2008 in response to the government's Fraud Review in 2006. It concluded that fraud was a significantly under-reported crime, and while various agencies and organisations were attempting to tackle the issue, greater co-operation was needed to achieve a real impact within the public sector. The scale of the problem pointed to the need to bring together the numerous counter-fraud initiatives that existed, which is when the NFA was formed. The

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was Stephen Harrison. The

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Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

announced in December 2013 that the NFA would be closed on 31 March 2014. Strategic development and threat analysis was transferred to the

National Crime Agency The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...

, Action Fraud was transferred to the

City of London Police The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, including the Middle and Inner Temples. The force responsible for law enforcement within the remainder of the London region, ou ...

, the e-confidence campaign transferred to the Home Office and responsibility for the development of the Counter-fraud Checking Service was taken on by the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

Functions

The NFA works to tackle frauds across the spectrum, but also works on fraud types and fraud issues that are a notable problem. These include

identity fraud Identity fraud is the use by one person of another person's personal information, without authorization, to commit a crime or to deceive or defraud that other person or a third person. Most identity fraud is committed in the context of financial ad ...

mortgage fraud Mortgage fraud refers to an intentional misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission of information relied upon by an underwriter or lender to fund, purchase, or insure a loan secured by real property. Criminal offenses may be prosecuted in eith ...

accommodation address "Accommodation address" is a term used mostly in the United Kingdom to denote a location where mail can be delivered in the name of a person or business for retrieval. The service is similar to poste restante and post office boxes, but is generall ...

es, mass marketing fraud and fraud affecting small- and medium-sized businesses. The NFA also produces the Annual Fraud Indicator, which estimates the cost of fraud. The last estimate made put the cost of fraud to the UK at £52 billion a year. Working with the charity, Victim Support, the NFA has also done some significant work with victims, to ensure they receive the support they deserve if they have been a victim of the crime.

Action Fraud

Action Fraud is the UK's national fraud reporting service, run by a private sector company for the NFA. Action Fraud is the place to go to get information and advice about fraud, as well as to report fraud. British citizens can report fraud online (such as forwarding scam emails for inspection) or by telephone. When a fraud is reported to Action Fraud, victims are given a crime reference number and their case is passed on to the

National Fraud Intelligence Bureau The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau is a police unit in the United Kingdom responsible for gathering and analysing intelligence relating to fraud and financially motivated cyber crime. The NFIB was created as part of the recommendations of the ...

(NFIB), which is run by the City of London's police service. The Action Fraud website also has an A-Z of fraud describing different types of fraud, and offers prevention advice. As of November 2014, there were 85 call-handling staff employed by the Action Fraud helpline.

Annual Fraud Indicator

The NFA publishes the Annual Fraud Indicator every year, which is the UK's comprehensive estimate of how much fraud costs the UK. The annual fraud indicator for 2012 was published in March 2012, and estimated that fraud would cost the UK over £73 billion that year. This was up from £38 billion in 2011. When broken down by sector, the indicator revealed that fraud losses to the public sector amounted to £20.3 billion, the private sector lost £45.5 billion, the not-for-profit sector lost £1.1 billion and individuals lost £6.1 billion.

Fraud in the Public Sector

The NFA's 'Fraud in the Public Sector action plan' places a firm emphasis on enhanced measures to prevent fraud in central and local government. This has been broken down into 15 workstreams.

References

External links