UK Economic Crime Plan
In July 2019, the UK government launched its Economic Crime Plan (2019–2022). This project tracks and support its implementation.
In July 2019, the UK government set out a comprehensive plan for tackling economic crimes, including money-laundering, fraud and market abuse. The Economic Crime Plan (2019–2022) is the first of its kind in the UK and contains 52 actions along seven themes, including information sharing, enhanced capabilities and corporate transparency.
In September 2019, the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS) established a project to track and support the implementation of the plan. The project provided unbiased technical support to government on key action points and introduced a range of measures to support transparency around the progress of the plan.
Project sponsor
This project is funded by the Open Society Foundation.
Aims and objectives
The overarching aim of this project is to ensure that the Economic Crime Plan’s implementation is prioritised by government and that it reduces the attractiveness of the UK as a global hub for money-laundering and fraud.
The project has two key objectives. First, it aims to ensure that decision-making on key actions within the plan is based on reasoned principles and evidence. RUSI assists by providing impartial, technical input to officials through workshops and working groups, targeted policy papers and informal advice to officials and ministers.
The second objective is to increase transparency around the Economic Crime Plan’s progress and to support external scrutiny. To aid this objective, RUSI created the Economic Crime Plan Tracker, which provides quarterly updates on progress against the plan’s 52 actions. The project also worked with partners to establish the Civil Society Organisation Steering Group, which inputs coordinated civil society positions on key issues to the ministerially-chaired Economic Crime Steering Board.
Finally, the project provides unbiased and fact-based viewpoints on key issues within the plan to media and parliamentary stakeholders to support factually-accurate scrutiny of the government’s progress in this area.
