Fraud Crackdown As Government Provides Funding To Serious Fraud Office

8th November 2024

New asset confiscation enforcement team and upgrade to SFO's disclosure technology outlined in the budget in a bid to crackdown on fraud says Attorney General.

Serious Fraud Office to receive additional funding to create a new team to improve ability to seize assets and returns to taxpayers and upgrade disclosure capabilities.

Additional funding will be provided to make improvements to SFO's case management system

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will receive an additional £9.3 million of funding to ensure the prosecutor delivers on its mission to tackle complex fraud, bribery, and corruption.

Funding has been provided to create a new team which will extend SFO’s capabilities to seize assets from convicted fraudsters, and expand and accelerate the use of technology to assist disclosure. It will also support improvements to SFO’s case management system.

The Attorney General Lord Hermer KC said "Fraud is one of the most pernicious types of crime. It not only destroys people’s finances but the emotional impact of being a victim of fraud is traumatic.

This government is committed to cracking down on fraud and this additional funding will modernise SFO’s services, improve their disclosure practices, and build their capabilities to seize assets and make significant returns to the taxpayer.

This Budget is fixing the foundations and is focused on raising confidence and public trust in the criminal justice system.

Nick Ephgrave QPM, Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), said:, "I welcome the continuing support for the SFO’s strategic ambitions, as we seek to deliver swifter justice for victims of complex economic crime.

This investment will strengthen our capacity to recover criminal assets, manage our cases, and help us further explore machine learning technology to tackle the huge disclosure exercises on our cases.

Dr Susan Hawley, Executive Director of Spotlight on Corruption, said, "This additional funding is a welcome affirmation of the critical role that the SFO plays in tackling the most complex cases of corporate fraud, bribery and corruption.

Investing in technology and core capabilities at the SFO should be the first step towards significant multi-year resourcing for economic crime enforcement, which is key to deliver the government’s ambition to make the UK the anti-corruption capital of the world.

The Budget provides funding for the Law Officers’ Department, which the Attorney General Lord Hermer KC and Solicitor General Sarah Sackman KC MP superintend, which includes SFO, provides total funding of £1.1bn in 2025-26.

This is equivalent to an annual real terms increase of 7.5% over this financial year and the next.