Dear Ed,

Review of the quality of fraud and computer misuse statistics for England and Wales

Today we published our action plan, Improving the quality of fraud and computer misuse statistics in England and Wales: December 2025. This was developed in response to the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) review of fraud and computer misuse statistics for England and Wales.

I would like to thank your team for its positive engagement and support throughout the review. We have worked with the Home Office, City of London Police (CoLP) and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to produce an action plan for addressing these recommendations.

The action plan outlines how we will address the key areas that OSR identified for improvement, particularly related to the quality of the recorded crime series for fraud and computer misuse. This includes data quality improvement initiatives related to the new fraud and cyber crime reporting system, Report Fraud, greater collaboration and knowledge sharing between the organisations involved in collecting and processing recorded crime data, and better communication of the quality of these statistics.

Within the action plan, we have prioritised actions into improvements by summer 2026 and those that are longer term. As we progress through this action plan, we will continue to update and provide evidence to our users.

We look forward to continuing to work with you and your team as we implement these improvements.

Yours sincerely,

Jen Woolford

Director of Public Policy Analysis, Office for National Statistics