City of London Police acknowledged that having the mechanisms to work internationally is important to allow the government to work proactively to tackle fraud. However, the NCA was admitted that government “really do have a lot more to do” when it comes to building relationships with international partners.46 Government has done some work with individual countries, for example, the NCA told us it had worked with law enforcement agencies in India looking at investment fraud, and in Ghana and Nigeria looking at romance fraud. It told us that it was also working with Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, America, and the UK.47 However, the National Audit Office report highlighted that the Department has limited understanding of the international response on fraud, or how the UK’s response compares with other countries.48 The NCA told us that it does not have the same forums for engaging with international partners on fraud as it does with some other crimes, such as money laundering and terrorist finance. It acknowledged that government needed to do more to work with international partners and to find a better means of multinational co-operation. However, investing more resource in this will not necessarily be straightforward. For example, City of London Police told us it was in the process of scaling back some of its work to build capability on tackling fraud overseas as it does not have sufficient resources to do this alongside upskilling police officers in the UK.49 44 Qq 88–89; Justice Committee, Fourth Report of Session 2022–23, Fraud and the Justice System, HC 12 45 Qq 39–41 46 Qq 90, 98 47 Q 40 48 C&AG’s Report, para 2.21 49 Qq 90, 99 Progress combatting fraud 17