Serious Fraud Office outlines tech-driven roadmap for year ahead

The same technology being abused by white-collar criminals presents ‘significant opportunities’ for the Serious Fraud Office, the organisation has said in its 2026/27 business plan. However, the agency also revealed it has yet to implement its first case management system.

The annual agenda is the first following the retirement of SFO director Nick Ephgrave, who stepped down from his role at the end of March half-way through his tenure. The 2026/27 plan marks the midway point of the SFO’s five-year strategy.

Interim director Graham McNulty spoke at the GIR Live: Annual Investigations Meeting, where the business plan was launched. He said: ‘This plan makes clear our ambition and focus on our priorities, including intelligence-led investigations, innovative modern tools and effective disclosure. While the complex nature of our cases means investigations can be lengthy, we are determined to increase the pace and efficiency of our work.’

In the plan’s foreword, McNulty said: ‘I will keep focus on our biggest priorities: intelligence-led investigations, innovative, modern tools and effective disclosure.

‘We will invest in proactive intelligence, using innovative skills and techniques to strike earlier. We will also leverage technology, making the most of new developments that can support our specialists and ensure our operations are lean, precise and focused.’

He congratulated Ephgrave on his retirement and noted the SFO would be moving into its ‘new home in Canary Wharf’ by the end of the financial year.

The SFO’s targets include to ‘re-balance the use of internal and external legal expertise’; to mainstream the use of technology-assisted review to increase efficiency; use automation to expedite translation and transcription; and to implement its first case management system.

Referring to new technology and artificial intelligence, the business plan says: ‘The same technological developments that are being abused by criminals present significant opportunities for the SFO. Automation, AI and big data all provide ways to radically change our approach to intelligence analysis. Proactively tracking suspects and suspicious activity has never been so easy.’

Backed by £8.3m of additional funding, the SFO plans to invest in proactive intelligence to intervene earlier ‘and with greater precision’.

The SFO will also ‘proactively contribute to the government’s programme of criminal justice review’, the report said, specifically to help deliver the UK anti-corruption strategy and develop ‘innovative’ routes to trace, secure and recover the proceeds of crime.

Lloyd Firth, partner at US firm WilmerHale, said: ‘The SFO’s focus on innovation is welcome and necessary, not least as it is apparent from the business plan that as of 2026 the SFO does not have a case management system in place and is only now making tentative use of TAR (Technology Assisted Review).’