The UK government’s campaign to combat serious and organised crime is suffering significant shortcomings in the face of a growing and complex threat, according to the National Audit Office.
Poor funding, a lack of knowledge and a failure to invest in prevention rather than pursuing criminals have all contributed to deficiencies in tackling international criminal networks, the government auditor said in a report released on Friday.
The warning comes at a time of rapidly evolving threats, with the government estimating that serious and organised crime costs the UK economy £37bn a year.
Last year 6,993 possible cases of modern slavery or human trafficking were identified, up by 36 per cent since 2017, and firearms offences increased 26 per cent to 6,525.
Sexual crimes against children were recorded on 61,646 occasions, an increase of 9 per cent, and recorded drugs offences and fraud also rose.
Responding to the report, a National Crime Agency spokesperson said serious and organised crime posed a “chronic threat to the UK” and stressed that “substantial improvements” in funding arrangements were needed.
More than 100 government and law enforcement bodies spend £2.9bn a year on combating serious and organised crime, according to Home Office estimates using data from 2015-16. That money is spent on four strands: prevent, pursue, protect and prepare.
But the NAO assessment suggested there was little evidence that this was the right approach or that the resources were available to make the strategy a success.
In particular, the report raised concerns that the government had been eager to enact the “pursue” strand of the strategy at the expense of others.
Of the £2.9bn estimated to have been spent on combating organised crime, the Home Office believes £2.2bn went on front-line spending, of which £1.8bn went to the pursue strand, compared with just £84m on preventive work.
“Projects to better understand preventive approaches, such as employment support for at-risk individuals, were small-scale and short-term, with limited insight into the potential impact of these approaches,” the report said.
The NAO also criticised the failure of government departments to share data to better tackle organised crime, or to distribute and share the work of fighting serious crime between agencies. It also noted that the government had failed to estimate the cost of implementing its strategy, which it developed from a 2013 plan that the NAO had criticised.
“Without the right amount of funding, the organisations that are responsible for tackling organised crime will not be able to deliver the strategy’s goals,” the report said.
Commenting on the report, the National Police Chief’s Council lead for serious and organised crime, Chief Constable Peter Goodman, said police were committed to working in a co-ordinated way with other law enforcement agencies to combat violence.
“The scale and complexity of serious and organised crime that we face is increasing and this report highlights the challenge that law enforcement and government have in tackling this,” he said.
“We have consistently made the case that law enforcement right across the system needs significant investment to protect against this national security threat and ensure that our communities are protected from violence.”
