UK Economic Crime Plan Online Tracker - Methodology

Regularity of Updates

The tracker will be systematically updated on a quarterly basis commencing on 1st June 2020. In addition, individual actions will be updated on an ad-hoc, interim basis should the team become aware of, or be alerted to, significant changes in status. The date of the last update to an action will be displayed at the bottom of the action narrative.

Basis for Status Updates

On a quarterly basis, the tracker management team will collate information from open sources, RUSI engagement on a specific action or from robustly evidenced updates from action owners on the current status of actions. The source of the update or grounds for a status change will be set out in the action narrative.

A fortnight before the update is due for upload the tracker team will offer the Home Office, HM Treasury and UK Finance (owners of the Economic Crime Plan) the ‘right to reply’ to the collated data and to offer the opportunity to evidence further progress on the plan.

Following a reply from the Home Office, HMT, or UK Finance, the team will require specific written evidence of progress before accepting any proposed status changes. The information supplied will be robustly queried by the tracker team before accepting any status updates.

Grounds for status changes will be made clear in the action narrative, however further background information will be stored centrally by the programme team. In cases where statuses are queried by third parties, background evidence for status decisions will be made available on request if a legitimate interest is established.

The tracker management team reserves the right to retain the original status rating if written evidence from the owners of the Economic Crime Plan is unspecific or if there are evidenced grounds for disagreeing with the proposed status update. Where this is the case, the two differing positions will be laid out in the action narrative and the basis and evidence for disputing the proposed status update will be clearly set out. Other parties will have the opportunity to respond to the project team’s conclusion by contacting them via the contact options on the tracker website.

Peer Review Mechanism

The methodology for forming and updating the Economic Crime Plan Tracker has been reviewed by independent experts from UK-based Civil Society Organisations.

On an ongoing basis the accuracy of the tracker will subject to accuracy validation by the Civil Society Organisations Steering Group (CSOSG). The CSOSG is a group of civil society organisations who were formed under Action 52 of the Economic Crime Plan to provide independent civil society input into the Economic Crime Strategic Board* regarding progress of the Economic Crime Plan.

*(the public-private body, chaired by the Home Secretary and the Chancellor of the Exchequer overseeing delivery of the Economic Crime Plan.)

Funding

This project is funded in its entirety by the Open Society Foundations. Find out more about how RUSI is funded.