A bold, victims-centred approach

The Strategy can be found here. It sets out a mission to “find complex financial crime, deliver justice for victims and protect the UK’s reputation as a safe place to do business”. The renewed focus on victims builds on the new Director Nick Ephgrave’s comments in his RUSI speech in February 2024, in which he said that he had a “visceral reaction” whenever he reads a victim statement in relation to the harm caused by financial crime.

In his foreword to the Strategy, Ephgrave explains that “[s]erious and complex fraud, bribery and corruption directly impact many thousands of citizens, damaging their health and well-being and destroying their confidence in our financial systems. These crimes have a corrosive effect upon the reputation of the UK as a safe place to do business and erode the integrity of our financial centre”.

Specific proposals to deliver change

The Strategy sets out the SFO’s strategy outcomes: (i) having a highly specialised, engaged and skilled workforce, (ii) being equipped to harness the technology and tools of a changing world, (iii) combatting crime effectively through intelligence, enforcement and prevention, and (iv) being a proactive, authoritative player in the global and domestic justice system.

Each of the outcomes is supported by specific proposals, so in the case of a “specialised, engaged and skilled workforce”, the SFO commits to provide extra support to staff, build an “in-house academy” and upgrade its HR systems.

In relation to the “technology and tools of a changing world”, the SFO has indicated that it will trial new and innovative tools, develop core digital skills across all its staffing roles, and strengthen its ability to monitor and forecast technological developments.

Other notable proposals include the SFO’s commitment to testing new crime prevention methods, formalising its specialist training for global and domestic enforcement partners and developing a secondment programme across law enforcement and criminal justice.

Pushing for legislative change

Interestingly, and consistently with recent public speeches by SFO officers, two of the ways in which the SFO proposes to combat crime effectively “through intelligence, enforcement and prevention” are (i) exploring incentivisation options for whistleblowers and (ii) continuing to push for a disclosure regime that is fit for today’s challenges.

Both proposals will require legislative change, and the inclusion of these commitments demonstrates the increased confidence of the agency under its new Director, and a belief that the SFO can help bring about such change in the coming years.

Mark our homework, please

Encouragingly, the SFO has indicated that it is prepared to be measured by its success in delivering on these commitments.

This marks a significant change from the agency’s opaque approach to its achievements under its previous Director Lisa Osofsky, when for example its annual report for 2023 said that the agency had “helped staff to feel they are part of an effective and efficient workforce” but in fact the SFO ranked in the bottom 5% of all civil service departments in all key metrics in the Civil Service People Survey for the same year.

The SFO’s five-year Strategy is certainly ambitious. There is some momentum behind its proposals – in particular there is a growing appetite for reforms to UK whistleblowing laws.

However, legacy issues continue to plague the SFO, particularly in respect to its approach to disclosure. Recent concerns have been raised in relation to the SFO’s use of Autonomy Introspect, a program designed to store and manage digital evidence¹, with a suggestion that “the program’s search engine is prone to overlook keywords due to a change to the default settings”.

Further, in a report authored by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) published on 30 April, HMCPSI noted that some staff within the agency were not confident in using Axcelerate, the system which replaced Autonomy Introspect in 2018.² It further noted that there is a “clear need for the SFO to ensure that staff understand what is expected and how they will be supported to develop the necessary skills to use the system properly.”

So it remains to be seen whether the agency will be able to walk the talk and deliver on its commitments.