Make trouble for the essay mills

It's obvious that universities, particularly newer universities and those catering to weaker students, have a vested interest in students completing their degrees with as high marks as possible. One of the tools they use is the elimination of exams in favor of more essays and project work. These latter modes of assessment make cheating a simple matter of coughing up the money to buy a piece of work, or persuading a classmate to let you copy their project or help you to complete your project. The only mode of assessment that is difficult to cheat at is a properly invigilated exam, preferably one that is uniquely created for each term, or even varied amongst students taking the exam at the same time. This is not likely to be reinstituted by the aforementioned lesser universities, as it would almost certainly result in more failures and fewer completed good degrees. But at least the degree would be worth a lot more than it is currently.

This is a BIG problem and the sector as a whole (in the UK) seems to be in denial. It's becoming an minor epidemic at my own institution, esp. with international taught Master's students and dissertations, now that students have generally wised-up to the fact that plagiarism detection software will catch standard types of plagiarism. Custom written work is very time-consuming and resource-intensive to pursue through misconduct panels and hard to 'prove' - and the sanctions are far too weak to provide a deterrent. The retention of exams is certainly part of the answer but coursework has real value in many disciplines and is arguably (if correctly designed) a better driver and test of student learning. The suggestion of smaller class sizes is a utopian fantasy, I'm afraid - never gonna happen. The key question here is: Why hasn't there been stronger action against these essay mills from the government, QAA and universities? Or perhaps we shouldn't ask.