The National Fraud Authority (NFA) has released the UK's first comprehensive fraud estimate which estimates that fraud costs the UK over ?30 billion a year (1). The figure is published in the National Fraud Authority Annual Fraud Indicator.

The new ?30 billion national fraud estimate is far more comprehensive than the last widely accepted figure of ?13 billion from the ACPO (Levi) report The Nature, Extent and Economic Impact of Fraud in the UK 2007 (2). That figure captured only a proportion of the true fraud loss, as it only referenced publicly available information. The new higher figure is the result of the NFA collating previously unpublished fraud loss figures, and producing its own fraud estimates in areas where fraud data was unavailable (3).

The report and overall fraud loss estimate will enable the NFA and Government to develop clearer priorities to prevent, detect and deter fraudsters and identify those areas of fraud that cause the most harm to the UK economy, to tackle it more effectively.