The National Audit Office (NAO) is to study the effectiveness of government policies in tackling e-crime, Computing has learned.

The value for money study is due to be released in the 2009/2010 tax year.

A spokesman for the NAO said: "The emphasis is going to be on the citizen online, and the efficiency, economy and value for money of policy decisions designed to protect that citizen."

A source close to the NAO said preliminary enquiries had experienced some problems in collecting data on the size of the e-crime problem.

"Simply nobody collects the data," said the source.