In a House of Lords Fraud Committee meeting today, the former anti-fraud minister in the Treasury Lord Agnew of Oulton, stated that the UK had sleepwalked into an ‘fraud epidemic’ and that the only way we will be able to confront this is to set up an overarching government department for fraud.

Lord Agnew, who resigned from his position while addressing the House of Lords in January over the failure to combat fraud through the Covid loan schemes, stated to the Committee that as fraud now accounts for 42% of all crimes committed in the UK ‘urgent steps’ need to be taken.

Lord Agnew said: ‘The single thing I believe is important is to implement, not just in this government, but across all political parties, a department whose job it is to tackle fraud. This department needs to be at the top and have the power and authority to call out not just the private banking sectors, but the public sectors including the Treasury, the British Business Bank, HMRC, and BEIS.’

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