UK needs disclosure of evidence regime fit for digital age, says City policing chief
A City of London policing head last night called for the Government to reform the disclosure system, which was designed before mass digital data, “to deliver faster and more effective justice for victims.”
Chair of the City of London Police Authority Board, James Thomson, said “too many cases are scuppered by the weaponisation of disclosure by defence teams”.
Speaking to an audience of police, business leaders, and security personnel at the City of London Police Authority Board dinner on Wednesday (March 1), Mr Thomson told guests: “We need a disclosure regime that is fit for the digital age – not the analogue one.”
And the former City of London Police special constable said it was “critical” that government includes an offence of ‘failure to prevent fraud’ in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, which “needs to have real teeth”.
Mr Thomson said that the Online Safety Bill puts a duty on large social media firms to prevent their platforms from being used to permit fraud. But he said that obligation “should extend to all organisations – much in the same way that health and safety legislation applies to keeping people safe in the physical environment”.
He told guests that forces were “having to adapt to deal with an explosion of online crime” with fraudsters “exploiting technological developments and vulnerable people to fund all manner of criminal lifestyles”.
Mr Thomson said that fraud and cybercrime now account for more than 40 per cent of all offences, but the investigation and prosecution of fraud nationally, while improving, “still remains low…and under prioritised”, with just under two per cent of overall policing resources dedicated to tackling it.
But he said funding from the Government’s last Spending review is building new capabilities across law enforcement agencies.
And he said the updated Strategic Policing Requirement, published last week by the Home Office, “gives the threat posed by fraud and the role of the City of London Police the prominence it needs – recognition by Government that tackling fraud and cyber is a real priority”.
Mr Thomson said a new network of regional proactive economic crime teams, under the leadership of the City of London Police, will strengthen investigative capabilities nationally.
And he told guests that the Government and the City Corporation are investing in a next generation national fraud and cybercrime reporting service.
Mr Thomson said the City Corporation is investing £350 million in a new court complex and City of London Police headquarters in Salisbury Square to increase capacity in the UK courts system for prosecuting fraudsters.