For the first time government, industry, voluntary groups and law enforcement agencies have joined forces to tackle fraud. Thirty-seven organisations have come together to launch ‘Fighting Fraud Together’, a new strategy that aims to reduce fraud, estimated to cost the UK £38 billion every year.

Speaking at the Fighting Fraud Together launch event, minister for crime and security James Brokenshire said: “Fraud causes serious harm to the public, to businesses and the wider economy. For too long fraud has Read the full story

Yesterday Home Secretary Theresa May told Parliament that a rapid review of key counter-terrorism and security powers is underway. The review, a commitment in the coalition agreement, published on 20 May 2010, will look at what counter-terrorism powers and measures could be rolled back in order to restore the balance of civil liberties and counter-terrorism powers Read the full story

The blog posted on 23 June 2009 concerned the annual report by Lord Carlile, the government’s official anti-terror law watchdog, about the use of s.44 Terrorism Act 2000, which grants police the power to stop and search anyone in a designated area without suspicion that an offence has occurred. He found that Read the full story

Of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland) is the only one to have an all-encompassing scheme for DNA and fingerprint retention. Under s.64 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 the police can retain bodily samples, Read the full story

This column has banged on at some length in recent times about the dangers to civil liberty and privacy caused by unlimited surveillance, and now the EU is weighing in with the same concerns. “Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used” said Viviane Reding, Read the full story

“It is a national disgrace that in 2009 rape almost always goes unpunished” writes Libby Brooks in the ‘Guardian’. “This is about systemic, institutionalised negligence. If you are raped, the likelihood is that the police won’t help you, and the CPS won’t help you. Read the full story

The Home Office recently published a consultation document and draft regulations to implement a European Directive requiring the retention of electronically generated data. The consultation document states that this is “to enable public authorities to undertake their lawful activities to investigate, detect and prosecute crime Read the full story