Protecting businesses against crime

The Welsh Labour Government’s new Business Crime Wales went live this week with the task of equipping businesses with the knowledge and tools to protect themselves from crime, which costs the Welsh economy hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

The creation of Business Crime Wales, which is led by Welsh Government in partnership with a range of organisations, was announced last year by Economy Minister Edwina Hart and is a commitment under the Programme for Government. Crimes against business range from copyright theft to online fraud to theft or damage to property – while some crimes are specific to certain sectors such as rural and farming crimes or metal theft.

e-Crime alone costs the Welsh economy £974million annually and research has been commissioned to ascertain the full scale of other crimes against businesses.

Business Crime Wales will complement the work of the e-Crime Wales by raising awareness of how to do business on-line safely and securely. A new Stakeholder Advisory Group will act as an expert group to advise the Welsh Government on its contribution to tackling business crime in the short, medium and long term, as well as provide guidance and input to business crime strategies and associated campaigns and activities.

The Welsh Government’s Business Crime Wales unit will also provide overall leadership and co-ordinate new business crime prevention activities with existing activities being carried out by third party organisations across Wales.