Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to collaborate with businesses to track and address the increase in fraud committed against consumers using generative AI tools, including voice cloning.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to working with industry to tackle all fraud, including AI enabled fraud.
The ‘Fraud Strategy 2026 to 2029’ sets out our plan to tackle fraud. The strategy is already delivering a strong, partnership-focussed approach with business, including:
The Government is also working with leading technology companies, academics and experts to develop and implement a world-first deepfake detection evaluation framework. This will help to tackle synthetic media threats, including image, audio and video.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what statistics they produce on the number of UK citizens who are victims of online fraud originating (1) within the UK, and (2) outside of the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
According to the Office for National Statistics, there were an estimated 4.16 million incidents of fraud against adults in England and Wales, across 3.4 million victims in the year ending March 2025. 56% of these incidents were estimated to have some online element to them, implying 2.3 million incidents of online-enabled fraud.
We do not collect data on the number of frauds that originate from overseas. However, in 2022, the City of London Police estimated that around 70% of fraud incidents have an international element to them.
We use data from a wide range of sources to build our understanding of the fraud landscape, including published reports from businesses and consumer groups, and surveys such as the Economic Crime Survey. We continue to build the threat picture to better target our interventions, including through our Online Crime Centre launched in April.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to collaborate with businesses and consumer groups to gather statistics on the number of UK citizens affected by online fraud.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
According to the Office for National Statistics, there were an estimated 4.16 million incidents of fraud against adults in England and Wales, across 3.4 million victims in the year ending March 2025. 56% of these incidents were estimated to have some online element to them, implying 2.3 million incidents of online-enabled fraud.
We do not collect data on the number of frauds that originate from overseas. However, in 2022, the City of London Police estimated that around 70% of fraud incidents have an international element to them.
We use data from a wide range of sources to build our understanding of the fraud landscape, including published reports from businesses and consumer groups, and surveys such as the Economic Crime Survey. We continue to build the threat picture to better target our interventions, including through our Online Crime Centre launched in April.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they collect figures on the number of children (1) seeking to register their entitlement to, and (2) refused a request for, British citizenship under each section of the British Nationality Act 1981 broken down by age group; and if not, whether they have any plans to collect and publish such data.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes quarterly transparency data showing the number of applications for citizenship.
There are currently no plans to publish data with the level of detail mentioned in the question.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the increase in homelessness of refugee households; and what assessment they have made of the impact that the 28-day move-on period for asylum seekers given refugees status has on homelessness levels.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to supporting individuals granted leave to remain to successfully transition from asylum accommodation to mitigate the risk of homelessness.
This Government is aware of the need for a smooth transition between asylum accommodation and other accommodation. The Home Office is working to identify and implement efficiencies to support this process and mitigate the risk of homelessness.
The Home Office has also placed Asylum Move-On Liaison Officers in over 50 Local Authorities across the UK, working alongside the Migrant Help and NGOs to support individuals who will be leaving asylum accommodation, and ensure a successful transition.
An independent evaluation of the impact of the 56-day pilot has been completed. The evaluation gathered insights from local authorities, devolved governments, service providers, and voluntary sector partners.
It is important that we take the necessary time to review this evidence before making any longer-term policy decisions. This measured approach ensures that future arrangements are sustainable and continue to meet our statutory duties while supporting those granted asylum effectively.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the government of Denmark, or past officials or ministers from the government of Denmark, about the operation of the Danish asylum system.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Home Office officials engage regularly with international counterparts - including Denmark - to share best practice and inform development of asylum, returns and border security policy.
A delegation of senior officials from the Home Office were sent to Copenhagen earlier this year to learn about their interventions and draw lessons for the UK asylum and returns system.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 3 November (HL11143), whether the information regarding citizenship applications for children is obtainable by using a breakdown of applications made under each section of the British Nationality Act 1981 for the last year for which information is available.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Whilst the information is obtainable, it is not currently available from published statistics. The relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they hold statistics collected by the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police on racially and religiously aggravated crimes; and if so, whether there has been increase in such crimes over the past five years.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Official statistics on the five racially or religiously aggravated offences defined in law are published on a quarterly basis. These data are quality assured with the forces prior to publication and released at the Police Force Area level in Home Office Open Data Tables.
The latest statistics show that in the year ending June 2025, the Metropolitan Police Service recorded 17,690, and the British Transport Police recorded 3,525 racially or religiously aggravated offences. For both forces, these were the highest annual totals recorded, with a spike seen in these offences during the disorder in August 2024 following the Southport murders.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their current policy on the collection and publication by police forces of statistics on racially and religiously aggravated crimes, and what discussions they have had with police forces on this matter.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Official statistics on the five racially or religiously aggravated offences defined in law are published on a quarterly basis. These data are quality assured with the forces prior to publication and released at the Police Force Area level in Home Office Open Data Tables.
The latest statistics show that in the year ending June 2025, the Metropolitan Police Service recorded 17,690, and the British Transport Police recorded 3,525 racially or religiously aggravated offences. For both forces, these were the highest annual totals recorded, with a spike seen in these offences during the disorder in August 2024 following the Southport murders.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many citizenship applications were made on behalf of children under the age of 18, and how many of those applications were successful, in the latest 12 months for which data are available.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.