PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Economic Crime - 4 September 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

Fraud is the most common type of crime in the UK. It hurts individuals and businesses and undermines everyone who plays by the rules—and it undermines economic confidence too. That is why the Government have underlined their commitment to tackling economic crime by providing the SFO with an £8 million boost as part of the spending review. That will bolster the SFO’s intelligence capabilities so that it can proactively identify and prosecute the biggest and most complex economic crimes.

A businessman in my constituency has been defrauded of £100,000. Local police lack the skills and resources to investigate, and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau says that it cannot identify a line of inquiry, even though my constituent has compiled evidence himself. To his great credit, my constituent is more concerned about how many more victims there will be while such crimes go uninvestigated and unpunished. Will the Solicitor General meet me to discuss how we can ensure that this crime is properly investigated and these wretched fraudsters are brought to justice?

I am very sorry to hear about the position that my hon. Friend’s constituent has been put in. I am sorry to say that it encapsulates perfectly why fraud is so damaging. The Government are doing everything in our power to crack down on fraud and corruption and support victims of these crimes. I am more than happy to meet my hon. Friend to see what more might be done in this case.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

The newly built Launceston primary school in my constituency was demolished and then rebuilt, costing millions of pounds because of serious defects in the building. The contractor at fault went into administration. Unfortunately, this is far from a stand-alone case; it is happening across the country. Individual developers are putting their companies into liquidation and then setting up a new one, evading their obligations to finish vital infrastructure such as roads and sewage works. Such cases often leave Government Departments, homeowners and the British taxpayer out of pocket. What steps is the Serious Fraud Office taking to tackle these all-too-common cases, and will the Solicitor General please consider new legislation to prevent such developers from getting away with such serious fraud?

I am sorry to hear about the position that the hon. Member’s constituents have been put in. It is a terrible example, which I am sure needs to be looked at much more closely. As he knows, the Serious Fraud Office is operationally independent. As a highly specialist agency, it takes on a number of complex economic crime cases each year. The case he raises may be one for it; it may also be one for Action Fraud. I am more than happy to examine it further and to raise it with the appropriate agency.