A major new court specializing in cybercrime, economic crime and fraud is set to be built in the City of London, in a bid to preserve the UK’s status as a leading global legal and financial center post-Brexit.
The new state-of-the-art Fleet Street building with space for 18 courtrooms will replace all of the City’s current court facilities save for the Old Bailey, according to the City of London Corporation.
These include the civil court, the Mayor’s and City of London County Court and Magistrates’ Court.
The legal and financial sectors have long been linked, and today financial services firms comprise 17% (£2.8bn) of the total demand for legal services in the UK while legal firms’ demand for financial services is 8% of the total (£793m).
“Our legal system has been an example to the rest of the world. Playing host to some of the world’s leading regulators, financial services and tech firms, the City is a natural choice to house this modern judicial center,” said City of London Corporation policy chief, Catherine McGuinness.
“This proposal will make sure London continues to set the highest legal standards domestically and internationally. Our Rule of Law is one of the many reasons why London is the number one financial center in the world and this new court will add to our many existing strengths.”
The announcement highlights the growing impact of cybercrime on the economy. The most recent official estimates put the figure at £11bn per year.
McAfee chief scientist, Raj Samani, argued that the growth of cybercrime as-a-service is allowing even those without technical capability to take part.
“It is important that the government takes the necessary steps to not only educate businesses on these threats and how to defend against them, but also ensures that the police have the skills and resources to investigate online crimes, and that the Crown has the expertise to prosecute these actors,” he added.
“The new investment in the court complex for cybercrime and fraud cases will ensure concentrated expertise to support the prosecution of online offences and position the UK as a global leader in the crackdown on cybercrime and making the UK the safest place to do business.”
Underscoring the soaring recent growth of cybercrime, GCHQ boss Jeremy Fleming yesterday argued that the spy agency is using increased government funding “to make GCHQ a cyber organization as well as an intelligence and counter-terrorism one.”
It’s primarily doing that through the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which revealed last week that it dealt with nearly 600 serous incidents during its first year of operation.