Public Affairs and Policy

Cifas provides policy makers with essential insight into the issue of fraud and financial crime via in-depth statistics, briefings, and responses to consultations.

Fraud and financial crime is an increasingly pervasive issue for everyone, from the consumer wanting to protect themselves from identity fraud, to an organisation setting up its defences against cybercrime.

Whether you’re a politician or policy maker working on local or national level, you’ll need clear information and guidance on how to help people tackle and prevent financial crime.

We can help with:

Unique statistics on fraud and financial crime in your constituency or region;
Briefings ahead of Parliamentary debates and key events;
Responses to consultations;
Information on how upcoming or current legislation may affect fraud prevention work;
Advice for your constituents on how they can protect themselves from falling victim to fraud.

Cifas has a long-standing relationship with government and the public sector. Our National Fraud Database is supplemented by a broad range of data from public sector organisations, including:

Fraudulently Obtained Genuine documents (FOG);
Amberhill data (false identity documents obtained from ID factory raids);
Law enforcement alerts;
General Register Office deaths data.

This information is regularly added to our database to help flag cases where there is a confirmed fraud risk.

We work with the UK Government in a range of other ways, including:

Being named a Specified Anti-Fraud Organisation (SAFO) by the Home Office in October 2008 and reaccredited in June 2014 (enabling a legal gateway for public/private sector fraud data sharing);
Holding immigration data for the Home Office;
Holding details of vulnerable individuals subject to a court order of protection under the Mental Capacity Act 2005;
Supporting the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce;
Having representation on the Joint Fraud Taskforce.

We are a trusted partner to many public sector organisations, helping them prevent fraud losses, achieve public policy objectives, disseminate law enforcement alerts, deliver legislative objectives and help victims of fraud.

Alongside this, our cross-sector nature and three decades of experience in the fraud and financial crime sphere means we are well-placed to offer holistic and detailed views and analysis on fraud levels, prevention tactics and support for victims. We are an ideal resource for policy makers, providing impartial analysis on fraud and financial crime.

Raising the issue of fraud in elections

Before the General Election in June 2017 Cifas called on the future Government to act in three distinct areas in our General Election 2017 Briefing to help tackle fraud in the UK:

Fraud education should be in the national curriculum.
Tackling fraud should be a strategic priority for UK policing.
Conduct a comprehensive review of the sentencing guidelines for fraud.

In 2016 we also launched manifestos for the devolved Parliamentary, Assembly and Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

Read our full asks of candidates: