India: Scam Call Centres

Baroness Crawley Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker]

The noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, has the next supplementary question. She is not here.

[Baroness Crawley (Lab)]

Thank you, Lord Speaker, and well done to everyone for getting us to this point. Given the rise in Covid-related fraud and scams in the UK, where we know unscrupulous criminals are exploiting fears about the virus in order to prey on older and vulnerable people, as the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, said, what are the Government doing to ensure that local government capacity, especially in trading standards departments, is fit for purpose, and what direct enforcement action has the Competition and Markets Authority taken in respect of companies breaking the law?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank the noble Baroness for that question. She is right to raise this. Local government is at the heart of some of that local awareness-raising and enforcement action. We have given a grant of £500,000 and an additional £600,000 for National Trading Standards scams teams to provide call-blocking technology to vulnerable people.