My noble Friend the Minister of State, Lord Hanson of Flint, has today made the following written ministerial statement:
I am pleased to update the House on the recent Global Fraud Summit 2026 held at the United Nations in Vienna, sponsored by the United Kingdom and co-organised with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Interpol.
The summit brought together over 1,400 delegates, with 40 Ministers, 115 countries represented, and 400 senior tech, banking and broader industry executives.
Fraud is the most experienced crime facing UK citizens and businesses. Of this, we estimate over two thirds to derive in some way from overseas as a product of transnational organised criminality. To drive down this crime, which costs our economy over £14 billion a year and threatens our economic and national security, it is essential to work with other Governments and multilateral forums.
Spearheaded by UK leadership, the summit delivered several key outcomes:
A UN “call to action” committing signatory member states to an intensification of efforts to disrupt fraud and to work closer with industry to achieve these goals.
A new UK initiative, signed by Five Eyes, G7 and industry partners, to work together and step up efforts domestically and internationally to protect consumers and to jointly disrupt transnational organised fraud.
With UK backing, an Interpol-led global taskforce was launched to disrupt the highest harm fraud networks. This includes targeting scam compounds where human trafficking and slavery is used to deliver industrial-scale fraud operations targeting UK citizens from overseas.
These actions follow the launch of the Government’s fraud strategy—Cmd 1523—on 9 March 2026. Within this strategy, we committed to working with all partners, countries and industry alike to collaborate and disrupt the organised criminals that enact so much financial and emotional harm on UK citizens and businesses. This summit demonstrated UK global leadership and resulted in agreed joint action to shut down sophisticated fraud operations and ultimately keep the nation safer from organised crime.
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