Serious and organised crime is when a group of individuals come together to plan, coordinate and conduct serious crime for their benefit, generally financial. This type of crime costs the Scottish economy alone (excluding the social costs) at least £2 billion annually. Those trying to implement these strategies will use whichever vehicles that are most convenient. These can include charities.

In 2018, the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce in Scotland published a resource for the charities and the wider third sector to help them understand the risks and to help them protect themselves from cyber threats, insider threats etc. It is not intended to replace an organisation’s risk management processes, but to give extra support to organisation as they think through any potential Serious and Organised Crime risks.

The Taskforce is now looking to refresh the resource. In order to make sure it is as useful as possible, it is looking for input from interested organisations. The taskforce wants to understand whether the resource is helpful, and if there is appetite within the third sector for it to be made available more widely in its current format, or with a different format and structure.

So is would be great if you could have a look at the resource and consider the following questions. You can find it here.

• Is the structure and layout of the document helpful.
• Should there be more background information provided on the sector and its value to Scotland’s economy and social wellbeing.
• Are there sufficient case studies and do they provide worthwhile explanation.
• Are the various sections of Chapter 4 appropriate for the sector.
• Are there any obvious exclusions from Chapter 4
• Is the flowchart helpful. Should it be removed. Can it be improved.
• What format would be preferable for your organisation’s purposes eg downloadable pdf, html doc

Any other comments would be welcome.

Any comments should be sent to me by the end of March 2020 at the following address jim.hislop@gov.scot. Please also indicate whether you would be happy to offer any further comment on a revised version prior to it being published.

Jim Hislop,
(on behalf of the Serious and Organised Crime Taskforce)