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<p>As noted in the response to PQ:130746, the Government remains deeply concerned
by the growth in scale and complexity of online scams, especially during COVID-19.
That is why, we are actively working with industry, regulators, law enforcement and
consumer groups to crack down on these crimes and to protect victims.</p><p>As of
March 2020, 53% of fraud incidents estimated by the Crime Survey of England and Wales
were thought to be cyber-related. The most recently available quarterly data for the
year ending June 2021 of the number of reports of fraud made to Action Fraud that
have been recorded as criminal offences by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau
(NFIB) have been published by the Office for National Statistics and can currently
be found in Table A5 here: <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables"
target="_blank">https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables</a>.</p><p>Tackling
cyber crime is a complex problem and, as we made clear in the Beating Crime Plan published
earlier this year, we are working across government to deliver improvements to the
UK’s cyber resilience and ensure we stay ahead of cyber criminals. We have invested
£195 million over the last five years to establish a specialist cyber law enforcement
network to disrupt and prosecute cyber criminals and support victims in response and
recovery.</p><p>To protect people and businesses from cyber crime we have launched
the Cyber Resilience Centres to assist small businesses; the National Economic Crime
Victim Care Unit (NECVCU) scheme to ensure that the right support is provided to victims
by the right organisation, dependent on their individual need; and the NCSC’s Active
Cyber Defence programme to help tackle a significant proportion of the cyber attacks
that hit the UK.</p><p>The Government will also publish a new National Cyber Security
Strategy later this year.</p>
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