Serious Fraud Office Strategy 2024-2029
In April the SFO published its Strategic Plan for 2024-2029 ("the Plan") setting out its strategy for fulfilling its mandate to fight complex financial crime and enhancing the UK's reputation as a safe place to do business.
The Strategic Plan focused on the following four areas:
- Developing the expertise of the SFO's employees
- Harnessing the technology and tools of a changing world
- Combating crime effectively through intelligence, enforcement and prevention
- The SFO's role in the global and domestic justice system
Developing the expertise of the SFO's employees:
The SFO has experienced several high-profile case failures over the last few years. This has led to questions about the expertise and training of the personnel that were involved in the investigation and preparation of these cases. The SFO has now committed itself to improving the development and training of its employees over the course of the next five years. This will include setting expectations for the core and specialist skills of its employees in the hope that this will strengthen its operational resilience.
Additionally, the SFO will seek to address the problems that it has faced with employee retention by improving its overall employee benefit packages. The SFO has long faced difficulties in trying to retain its top talent because personnel, like its investigating lawyers, are able to secure much more lucrative pay in the private sector. It remains to be seen whether the proposed improvement in its employee benefit packages will help the SFO to halt this trend.
Harnessing the technology and tools of a changing world:
The SFO will make greater use of technology in areas such as reviewing evidence and contacting witnesses. It will also adopt a case management system that will help streamline its casework and develop the digital skill set of SFO employees across all roles.
The SFO has been criticised for the length of time it takes to investigate cases. Any attempt to streamline its approach to casework, should therefore on the face of it, be welcomed. However, there is a question mark over whether the proposals for using technology will make a material difference to how the SFO conducts its investigations.
Many of the SFO's problems appear to be personnel-related, for example the expertise of the people employed to undertake certain key operational tasks such as disclosure reviews and whether they have the requisite experience to effectively discharge such roles. So, it may not be enough to simply make use of technology such as AI if the appropriate people who will serve as the ultimate decision-makers are not equipped or in place to effectively discharge their duties.
Similarly, the SFO has a finite budget, some of which has already been earmarked for improving the overall benefit packages of its employees.
Combating crime effectively through intelligence, enforcement and prevention:
The plan highlights the SFO's recognition of the role that technology can play in improving its operational efficiency in relation to areas such as reviewing evidence and supporting victims.
In light of this the SFO has made a number of pledges including:
- Strengthening its ability to monitor and forecast developments in technology, criminality and operating context. It will also work with experts in and outside the justice system
- Trialling new and innovative tools by setting up frameworks that allow it to do so in a safe and speedy manner
- Anticipating changing needs by updating its technology roadmap
In February of this year, Nick Ephgrave stated in an interview with the Financial Times that he wanted the SFO to make use of policing methods such as covert intelligence to help accelerate the pace of its investigations. In view of the types of cases that the SFO has historically investigated, such as those involving corporate bodies (many of whom operate internationally), it is unclear how helpful such tactics will be without more extensive cooperation and use of mutual legal assistance measures. Further, in a departure from previous SFO directors, Ephgrave has floated the idea of paying whistleblowers who provide the SFO with assistance in their investigations.
Ephgrave is clearly trying to take the SFO in a new direction that has the potential to put it on a more proactive footing. Given that he has only been in post for a little over a year now, and with some investigations already far advanced before his joining, it may be some time before a proper assessment can be made of how effective this new direction might be.
The SFO's role in the global and domestic justice system
The SFO will seek to work more closely with its domestic and international partners in its efforts to tackle complex financial crime. This will include making the most of new ways of sharing information and intelligence. The SFO will develop a secondment programme for its employees across law enforcement and criminal justice systems. It will also enhance international anti-bribery efforts by developing its role within the OECD working group on bribery and make use of new powers such as the failure to prevent fraud offence.
In April of this year, Nick Ephgrave stated in an interview with the Global Investigations Review that he wanted the SFO to be relevant to the taxpayers that fund it and to focus on domestic large-scale and complex fraud. The focus on collaboration with international partners suggests that the SFO is still intent on pursuing cases that involve a strong international element. However, it is unclear which will take precedence. Ephgrave's comments from earlier this year suggests that domestic fraud will take priority which may mean that the SFO's engagement with its international partners may be limited.
The SFO will measure its progress on the objectives set out in this Strategic Plan against four key indicators:
- Justice outcomes
- Operational delivery
- Organisational strength and resilience
- Finance