Last year, the government finally published its long awaited UK Fraud Strategy. This marked a ‘fundamental shift’ in how the government tackles fraud, which still accounts for around 37% of all recorded crime in England and Wales. The Strategy aims to cut fraud by 10% by 2025. One of the key paths to achieving this aim was developing fraud sector charters - voluntary agreements between industry and government, to improve counter-fraud capability.
At the time of the Strategy’s publication, charters had already been agreed with the retail banking, accounting and telecommunications sectors. The government committed to agreeing an online fraud charter with technology companies (which was published in November 2023) and the insurance sector. Since then, we have been working hard with the Home Office and Joint Fraud Taskforce to develop an Insurance Sector Charter and we are pleased that this was published last month.
The Charter contains a number of insurance and public sector commitments that’ll make the UK even more resilient to insurance fraud. These are very much aligned with the industry’s counter fraud strategy and the government’s fraud strategy.
Let’s break them down:
Empowering consumers through raising awareness of insurance fraud
Strong consumer awareness of fraud is key in preventing fraud. This is reflected in the Charter with a commitment focused on strengthening consumer awareness of fraud through education and campaigns and that consumers are clear how to report insurance fraud. We are already playing our part. Our recent campaign delved into the different types of online scams. By using case studies, digital adverts and partnering with influencers it aimed to help customers spot the signs of fraud and know how to avoid it. We’ve also been supporting the government’s national fraud campaign Stop! Think Fraud which aims to empower consumers to take action to stop and prevent it.
Victim Support
Bolstering victim support is a theme that runs through the government’s Fraud Strategy. We’ve agreed to review how victims of fraud are supported by insurers, notably providing relevant and timely information to victims, ensuring staff have appropriate training and learning from other sectors. We are pleased that the Home Office has agreed to include insurers in discussions on the design and operation of the new fraud reporting service and explore extension of the Vulnerable Victims Notification Process to the insurance sector.
Professional Enablers
Tackling professional enablers (individuals or organisations such as rogue doctors, lawyers or claims management companies that provide professional services that enable criminality) has been a growing focus of industry’s counter fraud work for many years. We are pleased that the government has committed to work to fully understand the threat professional enablers pose, including commissioning research into the threat and agreeing an action plan to tackle the problem.
Data & Information Sharing
Sharing is caring, especially when it comes to fighting fraud. A major government commitment relates to data and information sharing which is an essential piece in the fight against fraud. The government has agreed to team up with industry to understand how we can share information better. This includes a commitment to include industry within the new government data strategy, support industry requests to include counter fraud measures in the Official Injury Claims Portal and have access to the Metropolitan Police’s Amberhill database on fraudulent identity documents. On the industry side, we’ll promote a more consistent approach to classifying fraud and identifying trends, through updating and rolling out a new methodology for our annual GI detected fraud statistics. We’ve already made a start on this - for the first time our detected fraud statistics included details on the types of fraud scammers attempted to commit in 2023.
Illegal Insurance Intermediaries
The Charter also addresses major threats the industry is facing. Illegal insurance intermediaries (or ghost brokers as they are commonly called) have long been a problem for the industry. We have therefore agreed to provide data to the Home Office regarding online platforms & websites hosting fake adverts posted by illegal intermediaries. We will also explore data sharing opportunities with partners in the distribution chain to detect suspect policies incepted by intermediaries.
Insurance fraud is like a Rubik’s Cube - twisty, complex, and ever-changing. It’s a dynamic issue that requires a whole system approach, so partnership, collaboration and cooperation in the fight against fraud is crucial. This Charter is not the grand finale, it’s just the opening act. Now the real work of implementing and driving forward the commitments to build and protect society from fraud begins. As we’ve previously argued, it’s imperative that future governments continue to prioritise the fight against fraud and work in partnership with the insurance industry. It’s also equally important that those within the insurance sector, be that insurers, intermediaries, marketplaces and trade associations play their part.
Join us at the 2025 Fraud Conference which will explore how the insurance sector is combatting fraud against a backdrop of a new political climate, changing consumer and social expectations and technological innovation.