The scale of money laundering, fraud and other economic crime in the UK, is thought to run to tens or hundreds of billions of pounds per year. In December 2019 the Treasury Committee found various regulatory and legislative failings in the way in which these crimes were being tackled in the UK. It urged the Government to make improvements to the supervisory system and to introduce new powers to combat economic crime. The Government agrees about the need to tackle these crimes. It set out its overall approach in its July 2019 Economic Crime Plan. The Plan covers the years 2019-2022 and draws together all the work being conducted by the public and private sector. The Royal United Services Institute said that as at September 2020, 23% of actions in the plan had been completed, 59% were in progress, 9% were overdue, 6% of actions either had no due date or had been paused.
Documents to download
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Rights of victims of crime (231 KB, PDF)
Currently victims’ rights are set out in the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime. This sets out what victims should expect from various criminal justice agencies.
Although the Code is a statutory one, provided for in the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004, failure to comply with it does not of itself make a person liable to criminal or civil proceedings. Courts can take such failure into account in other proceedings however. Some argue that the “rights” in the code are not sufficiently enforceable. The Victims Commissioner and Victim Support have pointed to problems with victims being given their rights under the Code.
In the run up to the 2015 and the 2017 General Elections, various political parties including the Conservatives promised legislation on victims’ rights.
The Government has said it will publish a strategy for victims “by the summer”.
Documents to download
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Rights of victims of crime (231 KB, PDF)
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The Forensic Science Regulator and Biometrics Strategy 2019-20 was introduced by Darren Jones MP following the Private Members' Bills Ballot on 9 January 2020. First reading took place on 5 February 2020 and the Bill's second reading is due on 25 September 2020.
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The Troubled Families Programme (TFP) is a programme in England administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The programme conducts targeted interventions for families experiencing multiple problems, including crime, anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment, mental health problems and domestic abuse. This briefing examines the TFP since 2012, details MHCLG evaluations of the programme, and describes recent commentary and potential future directions for the programme.
