Serious Economic and Organised Crime Mission Statement

Serious Economic and Organised Crime (SEOC) poses a significant threat to our national security and prosperity and devastates victims’ lives. Prosecuting these crimes is a priority for the Crown Prosecution Service. We work closely with CJS partners to shape the strategic direction for combatting and prosecuting such complex and serious cases.

In 2021, we published our Economic Crime Strategy which sets out a ’whole system’ approach to deliver better criminal justice outcomes for economic crime as the largest crime type, ensuring the right person is prosecuted for the right offence in a timely manner, with victims and witnesses at the heart of our casework and to recover any proceeds of crime to help compensate victims. We recently published a two-year progress report, as we reached the halfway point of the strategy.

In 2022, the CPS reorganised its central casework directorates, launching the Serious Economic and Organised Crime Directorate (SEOCID), which responds to the need for a joined up, cross-departmental approach to the prosecution of these high harm offences.

In 2023, the CPS refreshed its International Strategy. This framework guides our decision making when approaching CPS activities with an international element. The strategy is focused on ensuring CPS international resources are primarily directed at delivering improved criminal justice outcomes domestically.

In December 2023, the Home Office published an updated Serious and Organised Crime Strategy. The CPS supports the aims and will play a role in the shared endeavour to respond to the threat posed from Serious and Organised Crime (SOC).

The CPS SOC mission is to deliver successful criminal justice outcomes domestically, whilst continuing to tackle the challenges and increased case complexity arising from the changing nature of crime. To achieve this, we will work in partnership with domestic and international law enforcement and partners to address the evolving threat. We will look to influence relevant legislative reforms and wider government objectives, to ensure that these reflect our priorities and unique prosecutorial insights, adopting the strategic approach as set out in the above CPS strategies.

In 2025, we will look to bring together and launch a new SEOC Strategy reflecting the strategic direction of the entire casework division. We will create a sophisticated multi-agency ‘whole system’ approach that is needed both domestically and internationally to address the evolving threat. The strategy will set out the work being done to combat the efforts of the CPS in tackling Economic Crime including fraud and forgery, money laundering, cybercrime including cyber-enabled fraud as well as other, often related serious and organised crime including drug and firearm trafficking; modern slavery; child exploitation, human trafficking and organised immigration crime; and in doing so will signify our continued commitment to tackling Serious Economic and Organised Crime.