Industry Focus
Home Office launches retail crime survey
The UK Government is carrying out an extensive survey of retail and cyber- crime to help drive and target harden crime-fighting policy.
The Home Office is launching a new study where Government and business will work together to collect robust statistics about the prevalence of the full range of fraud and cyber-crime across all types of business in the financial services and retail sectors.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This IPSOS/Mori study is essential to inform and enable decision-making at the highest levels of Government and business. The nature and seriousness of the threat from fraud and cyber-crime makes it essential that Government and businesses work together.
As part of this study, the Home Office is about to launch a pilot survey asking businesses in the financial services and wholesale and retail sectors about their experience of a range of fraud and cyber-crime, impacts of these crimes and fraud and cyber-crime prevention measures.
The Government is already lobbying groups close to retailers including ORIS Forums which is supporting this initiative by encouraging its members to complete the survey if approached to do so.
The spokesman added: “Taking part in the Fraud and Cyber-Crime survey is the retail community’s opportunity to help the Home Office and industry understand the full extent of these crimes against all businesses in our sector and to tackle crime.
The pilot survey will enable the Home Office to ensure the questions are comprehensive to understand whether businesses are able to provide the data requested, and to gain an initial idea of the scale and nature of fraud and cyber-crime, before potentially launching an annual survey from 2017/18.
The ultimate aim of the study is to set up an annual fraud and cyber-crime survey that will result in a set of robust, official statistics. In turn these will:
- Enable the Home Office and others to make accurate statements about the size and nature of different kinds of fraud and cyber- crime.
- Allow businesses the benefit of data sharing without disclosing commercially sensitive information to one another, potentially leading to a greater understanding of common issues and facilitating closer working.
- Allow the monitoring of crime trends in fraud and cyber-crime and hence the assessment of policy and other interventions.
The Home Office hopes to share the findings of the pilot study with LP Magazine EU prior to the launch of an annual survey, so that full account is taken of industry views of the survey.
The pilot survey is being run by the independent social research organisation Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Home Office. If your business is selected to take part, you will be contacted in the next few weeks with further instructions.
The Home Office wants to collect data from as many businesses as possible in order to get an accurate representation and they would be very grateful if you would agree to take part.
For more information, please contact Laura.Williams14@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk or Ipsos MORI (hannah.silvester@ipsos.com or nicholas.gilby@ipsos.com)
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