Suspicious Activity Reports Regime Annual Report 2010 Published
29th November 2010
The Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) Annual Report 2010 is published today. The Report gives the SARs Regime Committee’s assessment of the performance of the SARs Regime over the year from October 2009 to end September 2010.
The SARs Annual Report 2010 is part of SOCA’s ongoing commitment to communicate regularly with reporters of SARs, end users and other stakeholders to keep them informed of how their hard work has had an impact on fighting crime and terrorism.
Highlights from the report:
- SARs continue to make a significant contribution in tackling a wide range of crimes. Case studies in the report illustrate how SARs from various reporting sectors have played a key role in identifying and tackling crimes such as benefit fraud, money laundering, smuggling of counterfeit goods, advance fee fraud, arms dealing, drug trafficking, and fraud involving vulnerable people.
- The Action Plan for the first year of the three-year strategy launched last year has been successfully delivered. This included enhancing feedback, analysing the current spread of reporting, reviewing access to SARs, and improving the governance of the SARs Regime. This work forms a solid foundation on which the UKFIU can build during the coming year. The achievements of recent years have been consolidated, and opportunities for further improvement identified.
- The private sector continues to be a key partner in the SARs Regime. One of the main achievements of the year has been a drive to improve the quality and usefulness of feedback to reporters. All new online reporters now receive an assessment of the quality of their SARs and the highest volume reporters (covering around 73 percent of SARs submitted) receive feedback on the quality and impact of their reporting.
- A new interrogation and analytical tool known as “Arena” is being rolled out to the end users of SARs across the country. This tool will allow trained and accredited staff in police forces and other law enforcement agencies to use SARs more effectively.
- Next year’s vision for the SARs Regime is greater efficiency, more targeted feedback, and driving up the impact of SARs in fighting crime while harnessing opportunities arising out of the establishment of the National Crime Agency.
Download the The Suspicious Activity Reports Regime Annual Report 2010 here