Chair, My Lords, Commissioner, Aldermen, Chief Commoner, honoured guests.
A week is a long time in politics but it’s a pleasure and a privilege to join you this evening in this magnificent and historic venue.
I am told that before the Drapers’ Company bought the hall from King Henry VIII, it belonged to his minister, Thomas Cromwell, who, as you know, lost his head.
Aside from feeling slightly uneasy being a minister in this hall, it’s fair to say Henry had a somewhat extreme attitude towards ministerial reshuffles.
Still, I think King Henry would be quietly satisfied to know that his former residence has become such a well-regarded wedding venue — though, to the best of my knowledge, nobody has yet managed to tie the knot here 6 times.
My research tells me that the hall was bought from King Henry VIII in 1543 for around £1,200.
I’ll leave the question of how good a deal that was to the many financial experts in the room.
It was later rebuilt a couple of times due to fire damage, and there were further alterations in the 19th century.
But it has endured.
Hundreds of years have passed. Society has changed beyond recognition.
And yet the hall is still one of the City of London’s most exquisite locations.
So tonight, as we marvel at the history that seems to echo from every wall, we might also reflect on the resilience and durability that enables places and ideas to last through the ages.
And of course, after a weekend of our own ministerial reshuffle moves within government, it’s also a relief to be with you all.
At the start of a weekend like that, I didn’t know if I’ll be spending Tuesday dining in the Drapers Hall, or touring a fish factory in Grimsby.
Which would have been fun.
But, it is also one of those weekends when – against all the advice provided by the fraud experts in City of London Police – you have to answer your phone even when it says ‘private number’ on the screen, because it could be the Number 10 switchboard trying to get hold of you.
You answer and wait for the magic words
“This is switch – please hold for the Prime Minister” or “This is switch – please hold for the Chief Whip”.
Or, if things have gone really badly, “This is switch – please hold for Pickfords Removals.”
But of course, that does mean you spend all weekend answering the phone to private numbers, only to explain that…
No, I don’t want to change my network provider.
No, I was not sold car finance within the last 6 years.
And I’m really glad to hear about your win in the Ugandan state lottery, but I’m not sure I understand why it has to be paid into my bank account.
However, eventually the right call came through, and the upshot is that I remain the Minister of State for Security, but with that role expanded to be a shared across the Home Office and the Cabinet Office.
I will say more about that later, but the most immediate consequences are that
First, I was still able to join you this evening for this magnificent dinner.
Second, that I will be able to continue working closely with you over the coming months and years on some of the most important challenges facing the country, which again, I will come to in a moment.
And third, that it remains my duty and my pleasure to thank you for all the brilliant work that you have done over the previous year.
As Security Minister, I have the privilege of getting to work with countless exceptional professionals who devote their days – and often their nights to keeping our country safe. There are many of those exceptional people among us this evening. So many, in fact, that I am reluctant to pick out individuals.
But, I must take the opportunity to pay tribute to Pete O’Doherty, the City of London Police Commissioner, for the outstanding leadership that he provides each day, inspiring everyone under his command to reach ever greater heights of delivery and expertise each year.
Commissioner, thank you for your work.
And I do also want to take the opportunity to pay tribute to Tijs Broeke, Chair of the COLP Authority Board, for the tireless advocacy that he does on behalf of City of London Police, within government, with the City, and with the media, as well as being the driving force behind this wonderful event.
Tijs, thank you for your exemplary service.
But to all of you, I want to acknowledge both from my own experience, and from working with our lead minister for fraud, Lord Hanson, how diligently, how skilfully you are all approaching the huge task of keeping our citizens, businesses and organisations safe in an online age.
And, of course, it is an effort that goes well beyond City of London Police – as is reflected by the broad range of sectors and services represented here this evening.
From finance to technology, from law enforcement to academia, from central government to local government, from the public sector to the private sector, the issues we are grappling with demand a whole-of-society approach.
And your work at the centre of those relationships could not be more important, and I thank you all for that.
And, as I hope we’ve shown in the last year and a bit, the government in which I serve sees this as a shared mission.
That means working in lockstep with every agency and organisation who is contributing to our goals to keep our country safe and secure.
Because it is not enough simply to keep up with those who mean us harm.
We have to stay ahead of them.
And to do that, we cannot afford to be anything other than aligned and united.
The statistics paint an alarming picture.
On the latest figures, the fraud epidemic is continuing to spread. More than 4 million incidents in the year ending March 2025 in England and Wales; 44% of all offences reported to the Crime Survey.
20% of UK businesses and 14% of UK charities were victims of at least one cyber-crime last year.
But, as you all know, it is the individual stories that lie behind those numbers which are so devastating – the damage done to ordinary people and businesses, the disruption caused when major companies and organisations are crippled by a cyber-attack, like we have seen recently with the large-scale attacks on M&S and Jaguar/Land Rover.
And then there are the knock-on implications for the wider security landscape, as the proceeds of economic crime are funnelled towards organised crime, terrorism and malign state activity.
All of this underlines why the government has made combatting fraud and cyber-crime a key priority.
Much has been achieved on both fronts already.
The National Fraud Squad is now in place, with 400 new specialist investigators deployed into those roles.
The Online Safety Act is in force, holding tech companies accountable for the safety of their platforms.
We are developing the new report fraud service to make it easier for victims to access help and support.
On a global stage, the UK-supported UNODC-INTERPOL Global Fraud Summit will be taking place next March in Vienna.
We have been working closely with international partners including the UAE and India, and we have recently signed the first ever fraud MoU with Nigeria.
While domestically, we are investing in public-private partnerships right across the UK.
We are also tackling corruption head-on. The Domestic Corruption Unit is now operational within the City of London Police. Our funding and support has allowed it to sanction over 2,300 individuals linked to Putin’s illegal war.
And our new anti-corruption strategy which will be state-agnostic, will target kleptocrats wherever they operate.
Regional cyber security centres are doing vital work improving the resilience of small businesses and their supply chains.
We are boosting police powers through the Crime and Policing Bill, so that law enforcement can suspend IP addresses and domain names being used to facilitate serious crime.
And I am driving forward across government the new package of legislative measures we intend to introduce in the coming year to protect UK businesses from ransomware.
These are just some of the actions we have already taken together or driven forward together to strengthen the UK’s resilience against fraud and cyber-crime.
And there is no doubt that progress has been made. But there is much more to do, and we need to go further.
That is why we are drawing up a new, expanded Fraud Strategy that will enhance our collective efforts to disrupt criminals, safeguard the public, and deliver justice.
Again, that is a collaborative process, and I’m grateful to everyone across law enforcement, business and beyond who is providing insight and expertise as we develop that strategy.
Separately, there will also be a new national strategy setting out our approach to evolving cyber challenges.
These will both be significant documents but what will matter most is putting their contents into action so we can carry on delivering for the public.
Before I conclude, I want to add a final thought.
I started at the outset talking about the government reshuffle, and the change in my role to work across the Home Office and the Cabinet Office.
That may seem like a small change, but it is an important one. It’s a recognition from the Prime Minister that we do not need separate spheres of activity and authority when it comes to national security. But a single minister working with all the key agencies and individuals, driving forward a single, vital agenda across government and beyond.
And that, I hope, will be our contribution to what I see as the essential ethos that underpins the work of the City of London Police and the Authority Board.
A recognition that we can only achieve change and deliver results if all the relevant stakeholders are working together and pushing in the same direction.
Here in this Square Mile, the police, the Corporation, the banks, the tech companies, the government, and everyone else with a role to play – pooling their expertise, sharing their intelligence, and agreeing the changes that are necessary to keep our country safe.
As I’ve set out, the challenges we face are significant. The threats are evolving all the time.
But the wealth of talent and expertise in this room and beyond gives me confidence that we can and will prevail.
So, as we look back at the successes of the last year, let us all be determined to keep up the momentum in the next 12 months, strengthening our collaboration, sharpening our tactics, and together showing the fraudsters and cyber criminals, they will have nowhere to hide.
That is how we will make our society safer, our economy stronger and our country more secure.
Thank you.
