City of London Police have fallen short of their targets for fraud reporting in the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, according to a performance report presented to the Economic Security and Cyber Crime Committee.
The force is facing challenges in reducing the gap between reported fraud and estimated actual fraud incidents, and in recovering assets from criminals.
The Policing Plan Performance Report for Q1 2026/27 revealed that the Report Fraud
system, which aims to improve the UK's response to fraud, economic, and cyber crime, accepted an estimated 96,967 crimes. This figure is 20% below the benchmark for the first year, indicating a need for increased reporting to meet the target of reducing the gap between reported and actual fraud to 85% over a three-year period. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates that 89% of crime is unreported, and while reporting has increased since the public launch of Report Fraud
in January 2026 and national awareness campaigns, the force is still some way from its goal. National awareness campaigns are contributing to higher volumes and engagement, with crime reports largely stabilising over the last quarter while information reports have continued to increase month on month.
In terms of Reactive Pursue,
City of London Police reported a substantial increase in positive outcomes, achieving an outcome rate of 66.4%, which is 45.7% above the benchmark. However, national figures for outcomes reported through the NCAS system were below the benchmark at 11.5%. This lag in data reporting is due to the transition from older systems to NCAS, with legacy outcomes from the old SAIP system proving difficult to bulk upload. A gap will exist until these legacy SAIP outcomes can be uploaded to N-CAS.
Another area of concern is asset recovery. The Proactive Pursue
objective aims for a 10% increase in the national value receipted from asset recovery proceedings. For the previous 12 months, asset seizures totalled £87,862,183, a slight decrease of 0.41% compared to the prior year. Civil Recovery Orders also saw a significant decrease of 27% in Q1, falling 30% below the benchmark target. The primary reason for this decrease is attributed to resourcing gaps within the network,
with forces not releasing staff due to uncertainties surrounding police reform. This reduction in Civil Recovery Orders is a main component of the reduction
in overall asset recovery figures, which are down and represent the only red area on the framework.
To boost national asset recovery efforts, the force is drawing down on the economic crime levy to employ more financial investigators through the ROCU network. Additionally, 64 cryptocurrency investigators have been recruited over the last 12 months to work across the National Rocky Network.
The report highlighted that a new Asset Recovery and Immobilisation Technology (ARIT) system is due to launch in September 2027, replacing the Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD). The ARIT system is projected to record all assets seized and forfeited by all agencies with the power to do so, addressing challenges with data accuracy and being fit for purpose in recording cryptocurrency. While a minimum viable product is expected at launch, a roadmap over the following six months will build out additional functionality.
Furthermore, the committee was informed that several forces require improvement in investigating crime and managing fraud, with a need for effective training for staff outside specialist units and better victim care for fraud cases. The key challenges include the need for effective training for staff outside specialist units, such as call handlers
and that the lack of knowledge in fraud-based victim-care is also a priority.
The National Co-ordinators Office (NCO) is continuing with force visits and national briefings to address these issues. A draft national guidance for Calls for Service has been created, with further workshops planned to support areas for improvement. The Economic Crime Hub is also enabling knowledge sharing and access to best practice. While specific improvements to victim care are not detailed, HMIC inspections will provide a benchmark to assess the programme's effectiveness.
The Stop + Block Cyber/Fraud Disruption
objective saw 7,813 submitted disruptions with 4,481 actual disruptions, a disruption rate of 57%, though limitations with the NCAS system for accurate performance measurement were noted.
On a more positive note, the Cyber/Fraud Protect
objective targets a 20% increase in Cyber Resilience Centre (CRC) businesses in membership. In Q1, CRC membership increased by 35%, exceeding the target, with the network currently having 32,624 members.
