From April 2015, all Police and Crime Commissioners will take on new responsibilities for the commissioning of some services for victims of crime, including how we commission, deliver and evaluate the support provided to victims of business crime.

Working on behalf of the Greater Manchester Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner New Economy is seeking the input of local businesses to inform a discussion around ‘what works’ regarding business crime.

Context

Over the years a great deal of work has gone on to prevent and deter business crime in Greater Manchester, especially in more industrial areas like Trafford Park. Going forward we now need to widen the application of this prevention work and build on the learning. Business crime covers a wide spectrum of offending behaviour, from high volume offences such as shoplifting, to serious but thankfully low volume offences such as business robbery. Other offences often not considered include fraud related cyber crime and theft by employees.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), together with the National Business Crime Forum (NBCF), announced that a definition of business crime had been formally agreed.

“Business crime is any criminal offence that is committed against a person or property which is associated by the connection of that person or property to a business”.

Defining a problem gives us the opportunity to look at the extent and nature of offences in Greater Manchester, to properly understand how it can be tackled and what the needs of local businesses are. A large part of that work is beginning to understanding what the demand is for services in relation to business crime support in Greater Manchester, what is already available and what lessons can be learnt.

The recent Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) found that 40% of business premises in England and Wales experienced crime.  Combining the surveys for the last two years gives an estimated 7.3 million crimes against businesses across the six industry sectors covered for 2012 and 2013 CVS.

The report also highlighted that reporting rates varied by crime type.  Burglary offences were well reported (around 83%) but comparatively thefts by employees (30%) and online crime (11%) were not.

During the consultation exercise for the Business Crime Strategy recently published by the Mayor of London Office on Police & Crime (MOPAC), stakeholders relayed a number of core issues:

• There is a lack of business confidence in the policing response to reported crime.
• Cyber-fraud is an area of increasing vulnerability for businesses big and small, and the police response has not been good enough.
• There are opportunities for greater collaboration between police and businesses
• There is a lack of take up of effective protective security and prevention advice.

We are really interested in hearing your thoughts on how support can be improved in relation to business crime and how the Police and Crime Commissioner can support this work. Please include anything you think may be relevant and useful in improving the current provision in Greater Manchester, including any opportunities you see that may required a GM collaboration across all ten districts.

Guidance re Call for Evidence Responses

Please forward your comments to Joanne Beese, the Senior Analyst within the Public Protection Research Team at New Economy Joanne.Beese@neweconomymanchester.com, by Friday 19^th September 2014.