## **The Counter Fraud Professional Awards Board**
**Registered Charity Number 1201280**
**A Charitable Incorporated Organisation TRUSTEES’ 2025 ANNUAL REPORT**
1
## **Reporting period:**
**January 2025 - December 2025**
**Charity name: The Counter Fraud Professional Awards Board**
**Charity registration number: 1201280**
**Principal Address: 77 Mansell Street, London E1 8AN**
## **Charitable Objects**
As set out in its constitution, the objects for which the Counter Fraud Professional Awards Board (CFPAB) is established, for the public benefit, are for advancing the education of the public in counter-fraud and thereby promoting and ensuring high professional standards in counter-fraud practice by:
1. Establishing and maintaining professional standards in the delivery of a portfolio of approved professional training programmes in the field of counterfraud practice, to those engaged in (or training to be engaged in) such work and in line with the core learning aims and syllabi agreed by the CFPAB
2. Overseeing the delivery of approved training programmes by CFPAB Approved Training Providers (ATPs), considering their quality and effectiveness, in accordance with the rules and requirements stipulated by the CFPAB
3. Ensuring, where appropriate, that approved training programmes are structured so that higher education learning credits can be awarded to successful programme participants and that in particular a recommended credit rating is communicated to the CFPAB by a relevant higher education institution
4. Formally recognising, by way of professional certification, an individual’s successful completion of an approved training programme with the bestowal of the appropriate award
5. Encouraging and fostering the continued professional development (CPD) of CFPAB award holders through the giving of advice, guidance and recognition of CPD activity
6. Promoting professional training programmes for counter-fraud practitioners (or those training to be such practitioners) and working with organisations with an interest in supporting economic security and sound financial management through adopting counter-fraud practices
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“Counter-fraud” and “counter-fraud practice” means the practice of protecting the economic well-being and security of the public (including critical national infrastructure, commerce, public and third sector services and individuals) from the threat of fraud and other cognate threats, such as bribery and corruption.
The work of the CFPAB is supported by Member and Associate Member volunteers. The Trustees are therefore extremely grateful for the time given by these individuals and their respective member organisations whom they represent.
## **Achievements and Performance Against Charitable Objects 2025**
- During this reporting period, the CFPAB has overseen the professional accreditation of 698 individuals for a variety of awards, as detailed in the table set out at Appendix 1 (Objects 1, 3 and 4)
- Continued its membership of the Government Counter Fraud Profession’s (GCFP’s) Trailblazer Group for the proposed Fraud Control Officer apprenticeship (Object 6)
- CFPAB representative Trustee Alan Doig appointed as GCFP “Challenge Panel” member Advisor (Object 6)
- Retained a position on the Tackling Economic Crime Awards (TECAS) judging panel and attended the annual awards ceremony (Object 6)
- Sponsored TECAS category “Outstanding Young Professional” (Object 6)
- Grown the CFPAB’s LinkedIn social media page to 900 followers, an 8% increase from the previous year (Object 5)
## **Other notable activity**
- Extensive internal review undertaken of CFPAB governance, quality assurance (QAF) and continuous professional development (CPD) arrangements
- Governance restructure involving dissolution of the Executive Board (EB) and the Technical and Education sub-Committee (TEC) and the consequent establishment of a single operational governance board: the Management and Advisory Board (MAB)
- Creation of a new CFPAB membership class: Associate Member
- Appointment of a part-time independent Executive Officer (ExO) to lead the MAB and direct the operations of the CFPAB
- Appointment of a part-time independent Assessor to lead the new QAF and CPD scheme
- Jackie Harvey appointed as a Trustee
- Collaborated with the GCFP in updating its Fraud Investigator standards
- Collaborated with the GCFP in developing its currently named “Red Tractor” Training Provider Assurance Scheme
3
- City of London Police stepped down as a CFPAB Member
- Cognitas Global withdrew as an Authorised Training Provider (ATP)
- Considered one application for ATP and Associate Member status, currently paused by the applicant until 2026
## **Planned activity in 2025 and outturn**
Set out in the CFPAB’s 2024 Annual Report were 5 workstream activities – over and above the CFPAB’s ongoing ‘business as usual’ activities – planned for 2025. These activities are tabulated immediately hereunder along with their outturns and corresponding comment:
|**No.**|**Activity**|**Outturn**|**Comment**|
|---|---|---|---|
|1|Commission a review of
the CFPAB’s governance
and secretariat
arrangements to identify
potential areas for
improvement in terms of
delivering the Board’s
charitable objects; and the
simultaneous
establishment of Quality
Assessment and
Continuous Professional
Development frameworks
for CFPAB awards
involving the appointment
of a dedicated supplier to
carry out the required work
in conjunction with
University of Northumbria,
Newcastle (UNN) with a
view for full implementation
by Quarter 1 2026.|Review commissioned and
supplier appointed 28thMarch
2025. Review commenced 1
April and final report
submitted 31 July. All
recommendations arising
accepted by the Trustees and
subsequently by Members.
Governance restructuring
implemented: Executive
Board and Technical and
Education Sub-Committee
dissolved 17thSeptember
2025, and Management and
Advisory Board (MAB)
established along with new
class of CFPAB membership:
Associate Member.
1stOctober 2025,
Independent Executive
Officer (Les Dobie)1
appointed to lead MAB and
direct CFPAB operations.
CFPAB Constitution and
Scheme of Delegation
amended to reflect new
governance arrangements
1st November 2025,
independent Assessor|QAF and CPD
scheme scheduled for
implementation
throughout and until
the end of 2026,
ahead of the next
cycle of ATP licensing
and training
programme
reaccreditations (see
“Planned Activity in
2026” section below)|
> 1 Les Dobie resigned as CFPAB Trustee prior to assuming Executive Officer role
4
|||appointed to lead on QAF
and CPD implementation
New Quality Assurance
Framework (QAF) and
Continuous Professional
Development (CPD) scheme
agreed by Trustees and
Members 10thDecember
2025||
|---|---|---|---|
|2|Engage with the
Government Counter
Fraud Profession
concerning recognition of
the ACFS and ACFIS
awards as gateway
qualifications to ‘the
profession’|Work in progress with positive
engagement continuing
throughout 2025|Recognition of awards
contingent on CFPAB
attaining GCFP “Third
Party Assurance”
status (Red Tractor
scheme compliant) in
2026 i.e. subject to
establishment of QAF
and CPD scheme.
(see “Planned Activity
in 2026” section
below)|
|3|Broaden the portfolio of
CFPAB awards with a
focus on fraud prevention
and international specialist
awards|Development of the fraud
prevention award continued
to be held in abeyance in
2025 pending the publication
of the GCFP’s Level 4 Fraud
Control Officer
Apprenticeship (FCOA)
Occupational Standard.
Publication of this standard is
now anticipated Q1/early Q2
2026.
No material progress was
made on the development of
the desired International
Specialist award|A Fraud Prevention
Award CFPAB
Working Group was
established in
December 2025 in
anticipation of the
FCOA Standard
publication
which the CFPAB
intends to utilise in
creating and aligning
its own award (see
“Planned Activity in
2026” section below)
Development of an
International Award
remains on the
agenda for 2026 with
one ATP signalling an
intention to develop a
draft programme for
MAB consideration|
5
|4|Active stakeholder
participation in UNN’s
“Strengthening Counter
Fraud Across the NHS in
England” research project
aka“SCAN”|SCAN commenced in 2025
and is set to continue
throughout 2026 and 2027.
The CFPAB has not yet
participated in the project|The CFPAB is
expected to
participate in SCAN in
2026|
|---|---|---|---|
|5|Continue to engage with
identified partners
concerning the distribution
of charitable funds|Charitable funds were
distributed to the Tackling
Economic Crime Awards
(TECAS)|The CFPAB remains
committed to
sponsoring TECAS
for year 2026.
Otherwise, the
Trustees have
resolved to pause
charitable giving for
2026 (see “Financial
Review” section
below)|
## **Planned activity in 2026**
- Implementation of the agreed Quality Assurance Framework and CPD scheme by the end of 2026
- New ATP subscription licensing scheme
- Renewal of Secretariat Services Agreement
- Attain GCFP Third-Party Assurance (Training Provider) Scheme status – contingent on establishment of scheme
- Development of Fraud Prevention and International Specialist awards
## **Financial Review (1[st] January to December 31[st] , 2025)**
A review of the CFPAB’s financial position has been undertaken and can be summarised as follows:
|Income:|£4,035|
|---|---|
|Expenditure:|£20,518|
|Bank balance:|£15,176|
6
Expenditure Breakdown:
|**Item**|**Amount**|
|---|---|
|Grants|£3,000|
|Travel & Expenses|£216|
|Admin Costs|£17,302|
|Total|£20,518|
The CFPAB experienced an improved 2025, marked by a 50% plus increase in accreditation applications and a corresponding rise in income. This growth confirms previous forecasts and is expected to continue throughout 2026. The launch of the CPD scheme in Q1 2026 will further diversify income, likely bolstered by the GCFP’s recent policy updates in this area.
The significant year-on-year increase in ‘Admin costs’ is largely attributable to fees incurred in relation to the organisational review undertaken in the spring and early summer of 2025 and can be considered one-off in nature.
Recent investments by the Board include the appointments of a contract-based Executive Officer and an Assessor, both on a part-time basis for an initial period of 12 months. To manage these costs and ensure financial stability, charitable giving is suspended for 2026 (excluding TECAS 2026) while Trustees explore new revenue streams. Despite these internal investments, the Board’s finances remain healthy, and the 2025 accounts are ready for Charity Commission filing.
## **Reserves Policy**
The Trustees continue to maintain a financial reserves policy for one-off, infrequent or unanticipated costs associated with CFPAB activities; for example, costs associated with advertising and tendering for services, financial support to an Authorised Training Provider (ATP) to take on additional students in the event another ATP becomes insolvent, legal advice, authorised out-of-pocket Trustee expenses and so on.
The trustees consider that an ongoing reserve balance of £5,000 should be maintained in the CFPAB accounts, reviewable on a regular basis and at least annually.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
The CFPAB is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, and the Board of Trustees is the key body accountable for its governance. The CFPAB’s primary governing document is its constitution. In addition, pursuant to their powers the Trustees, through a scheme of delegation, delegate certain powers and/or functions to a
7
subordinate board known as the Management and Advisory Board (MAB). The MAB is made up of CFPAB volunteer ‘Member’ and ‘Associate Member’ organisation representatives and is led by an independent Executive Officer. The scheme’s document sets out the extent of the delegation that must be exercised reasonably and with due care and attention by the MAB.
In summary and notwithstanding certain matters reserved for the Board of Trustees, the MAB is responsible for the general running and operational management of the CFPAB, and the effective implementation of policies and strategy as determined by the Trustees, with the Executive Officer responsible to the Board of Trustees.
## **Trustees**
Trustees are private individuals acting in their personal capacity who are appointed in accordance with the CFPAB’s constitution.
The CFPAB’s Trustees are:
1. Peter Darby
2. Alan Doig
3. Phillip Sapey
4. John Rosenbloom
5. Jackie Harvey
## **Members**
Full CFPAB membership is made up of organisations in the UK and Northern Ireland that meet the following criteria:
- are incorporated by law, statute or other similar enactment
- can demonstrate having a significant interest or role in, or influence over, the counter fraud sector
- have a clear interest in furthering the CFPAB’s objects and possess the resources and capability to do so
- conduct business either on a non-commercial or not-for-profit basis
The Members are:
## 1. Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
2. Cifas
3. Department for Work and Pensions
4. His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
5. Insurance Fraud Investigators Group
8
Member organisations are voting members and nominate representatives from within their ranks to the MAB.
In accordance with the constitution, Trustees are Members _ex officio._
## **Associate Members**
There is an additional class of CFPAB membership: Associate Members. Associate Members are Authorised Training Providers (ATPs) who do not meet the criteria for full membership but nevertheless make a valuable contribution to the running of the CFPAB. Associate Members nominate representatives from within their ranks to the MAB on a non-voting basis.
Associate Members are:
1. Larus Consulting Ltd.
2. Naylor & Osborn Ltd trading as RNA Training
## **CFPAB Executive Officer**
The CFPAB’s independent Executive Officer and MAB Chair is Les Dobie
## **CFPAB Assessor**
The CFPAB’s independent Assessor, responsible for the Board’s Quality Assurance Framework and CPD Scheme is Dr Peter Sproat.
## **Secretariat**
The secretariat is an administrative function responsible for providing administrative support to the CFPAB. The role is renewed every 3 years by way of a competitive process. The secretariat is University of Northumbria, Newcastle. Both the Board of Trustees and the Executive Board are grateful for the ongoing support provided by the secretariat.
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## **Declarations**
**Signature:**
**Full name: John Robert Rosenbloom**
**Position: Interim Chair of the Board of Trustees**
**Date: 11 March 2026**
10
## **Appendix 1**
## **2025 CFPAB Awards**
|**Provider**
**Name**|**Number**
**of**
**Awards**|**ACFS**|**ACFTech**|**ACFT**|**ACFM**|**ACFIS**|**ACFITech**|**ACFSS**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|CIPFA|128|71|48|||||9|
|CIFAS|32|16|16||||||
|HMRC|390|230|21|19||35|85||
|Larus
Consulting|6|6|||||||
|Peter Darby
Associates|56|39|17||||||
|RNA
Training|85|85|||||||
|Totals|**697 ***|**447**|**102**|**19**|**0**|**35**|**85**|**9**|
(* NB 698 including 1 x Graduate Counter Fraud Specialist [GCFS] award)
11
|**Charity Name**||**No (if any)**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Receipts and payments accounts**||||**CC16a**|
|**For the period**
**from**|01/01/2025
Period start date|31/12/2025
Period end date
**To**|||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**715**
**1,380**
**1,940**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,035**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,035**
**3,000**
**216**
**147**
**2,925**
**6,000**
**8,230**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,518**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,518**
**- 16,483**
**-**
**-**
**- 16,483**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**715**
**1,380**
**1,940**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,035**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,035**
**3,000**
**216**
**147**
**2,925**
**6,000**
**8,230**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,518**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,518**
**- 16,483**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|Northumbria University|**715**|||||**-**|
|Northumbria University|**1,380**|||||**-**|
|Northumbria University|**1,940**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**4,035**|||||**-**|
||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||
||**-**||||||
||**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||
|||||||**-**|
||||||||
|
Grants|**3,000**|||||**13,000**|
|Travel & Expenses|**216**|||||**477**|
|Operational & admin costs|**147**|||||**135**|
|Professional Services - Executive Officer|**2,925**||||||
|Professional Services- CFPAB review|**6,000**||||||
|Consultancy|**8,230**||||||
|Travel|**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**20,518**|||||**13,612**|
||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases (see table)**|||||||
|**,**|**-**||||||
||**-**||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||
|||||||**13,612**|
||||||||
||**- 16,483**|**-**|**-**|**- 16,483**||**- 13,612**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**- 16,483**|**-**|**-**|**- 16,483**||**- 13,612**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
19/05/2026
1
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**||
|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Agreement Error
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
J. Rosenbloom|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
|||J. Rosenbloom|18-May-26|
|||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
19/05/2026
2