industry focus
A new face in the fight against business crime
A successful initiative that has helped to raise the profile and improve public and private sector collaboration in the fight against business crime is now joining forces with a not-for-profit crime intelligence sharing platform that it helped to create.
With the increased threat of cyber crime adding to the traditional threats affecting UK businesses there is a greater need for more effective collaboration and sharing of intelligence.
Previously, various businesses and trade organisations lobbied the Home Office or individual Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) about addressing business crime, but the National Business Crime Forum (NBCF) successfully managed to bring together the disparate voices into one body.
Now, with an ever-increasing demand for efficiency and the need for an intelligence-led approach, the NBCF is to link with the National Business Crime Solution (NBCS), an award-winning crime intelligence platform which has wide support from many UK businesses and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC – formerly ACPO).
The NBCS has members from a broad range of businesses including retail, wholesale, distribution and freight and has proven successes in working with the UKs law enforcement community to identify and disrupt a number of cross-border crime teams by sharing intelligence across the public and private sector. NBCS activity has led to the arrest of several cross-border, serious organised crime teams, as well as enabled businesses to better prevent and detect crimes against them through alerts and information sharing.
Both representatives of the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), along with the other board members, fully support this move as the next step forwards in the fight against business crime.
Jean Mountain, representing the BCC said: “For many years various bodies have been competing for the same goals. The time is now right to simplify the landscape, consolidate organisations and best practice and present UK Plc with one route for crime reduction.”
Mike Cherry, policy director at the FSB said: “We are now in a completely different place to where we were three years ago and the members of NBCF will continue to support the growth of NBCS. The NPCC welcomes any business driven responses that work to address business crime, and we encourage any other bodies operating in this space to collaborate with the NBCS to maximise the public private intelligence sharing for everyone’s benefit.”
Deputy Chief Constable Sue Fish OBE, the NPCC Business lead, said: “As a result of the hard work of the NBCF, there is now a greater appetite to share information and best practice within both the business and policing community. The NBCF also helped facilitate single points of contact within each force area, introduced primary authority status, piloted restorative justice initiatives, and led new standards for the local crime partnerships.”
“This is a dramatic step change which will take the NBCF to the next stage of its journey. It is fitting because it successfully helped launch the NBCS solution, which is now a proven concept. Consequently, the direction of travel is towards greater collaboration between public and private bodies which will stimulate a greater call to action and results.”
For more information, visit www.nationalbusinesscrimesolution.com
