Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2021 to Question 57132 on Arrest Warrants: Cross Border Cooperation, for what reason her Department does not record that information.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Crime Agency (NCA) acts as the National Central Bureau for INTERPOL (NCB) for the UK. INTERPOL data is made available both at the UK border and to front-line policing in order to inform operational decision making. The appropriate and lawful action to take will be case specific.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will publish the Fraud Action Plan.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times and on what dates the Joint Fraud Taskforce has met since its initial inception in February 2016.
From its inception in February 2016, the Joint Fraud Taskforce (JFT) has held a total of 27 meetings, including the recent relaunch on 21 October 2021.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will publish the Fraud Action Plan.
Work on the Fraud Action Plan has continued at pace since it’s inception in February 2021 and the government intend to publish the final plan in early 2022.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times and on what dates the Joint Fraud Taskforce has met since its initial inception in February 2016.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times and on what dates the Joint Fraud Taskforce has met since its initial inception in February 2016.
From its inception in February 2016, the Joint Fraud Taskforce (JFT) has held a total of 27 meetings, including the recent relaunch on 21 October 2021.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will publish the Fraud Action Plan.
Work on the Fraud Action Plan has continued at pace since it’s inception in February 2021 and the government intend to publish the final plan in early 2022.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the (a) status and (b) likelihood of on-time delivery of the independent review of Prevent.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Independent Review of Prevent is currently ongoing. The Independent Reviewer of Prevent will complete and present his report to the Government imminently. The Government will respond on receipt of the report, as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with her international counterparts to strengthen the UK's national resilience against (a) ransomware and (b) wider cyber crime.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government’s priority, working alongside law enforcement and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), is to do all we can to mitigate any harm to the UK from ransomware and other cyber crimes.
We co-ordinate closely with a wide range of international partners, from our operational relationships with foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies through to the use of our diplomatic network to build global resilience. We share our analysis of the threat and our criminal justice expertise to increase the capabilities and commitment of countries around the world to respond and deter malicious cyber activity. We have a global network of cyber attachés who work with international partners to raise awareness and build capacity to defend against cyberattacks, including coordinating on our approaches to attributing malicious cyber activity.
Our commitment to strengthening international action on cyber crime was demonstrated at the G7 summit in June; G7 partners committed to work together to urgently address the escalating shared threats from cyber criminal networks. We continue to engage with G7 partners on this. Furthermore, the UK recently met with over 30 international partners to discuss the growing threat of ransomware, focusing on a range of options to better coordinate our activity to improve the resilience of our networks and systems.
More widely, the Government strongly supports the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime as the leading international treaty on cybercrime, and we welcome the work of the Council of Europe to develop the Second Additional Protocol to the Convention, to ensure that the Convention remains effective in the face of changing threats in cyberspace, and that it continues to provide an effective legal basis for international cooperation to tackle these threats. In addition, the UK will play an active role in the development of the proposed UN treaty on cybercrime.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made with Interpol on the delivery of the Government’s I-LEAP law enforcement alerts platform.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The current priority of the I-LEAP programme, which is at an early stage of development, is to further enhance the UK’s connectivity to INTERPOL. We aim to initiate two pilots at the end of this year that will test I-LEAP’s real-time connection to INTERPOL nominals data in a live environment. The gradual rollout of I-LEAP’s INTERPOL capability to UK policing more widely should then commence in 2022.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions since January 2021 individuals have been stopped and released by UK authorities in circumstances where it has subsequently been found that an Interpol notice had been raised against those individuals.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the deliverables set out in the Government's Economic crime plan: statement of progress, published in April 2021, what progress her Department has made on (a) reviewing the national support provided to victims of fraud and (b) testing innovative approaches to improve that support.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
HMG are making significant progress delivering the Economic Crime Plan 2019-2022. Of the 52 actions, 24 actions are complete with a further 26 in progress expected to be delivered by their delivery dates which are set out in the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress published in May 2021.
There are 2 actions (17 and 29) that are currently forecast to be overdue against the planned delivery dates although there has been considerable progress on both actions. These are:
In collaboration with the Serious Fraud Office, the Home Office has established the Victims of Fraud Working Group, bringing together key stakeholders working with victims of fraud and cyber crime from across government, law enforcement, charities and voluntary organisations. This group met for the second time in September. The group is building a better understanding of the national fraud landscape to help understand a victim’s journey and how their needs can be met.
The Home Office is supporting National Trading Standards in the national rollout of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH). The hubs are in the process of being rolled out within England and Wales and will improve the quality of victim care available to local fraud victims by establishing a holistic multi-agency support service that listens to victims and works with them to address their immediate and longer-term needs.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government is on course to complete all of the actions outlined in its Economic crime plan 2019-2022 by the deadlines set in that plan.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
HMG are making significant progress delivering the Economic Crime Plan 2019-2022. Of the 52 actions, 24 actions are complete with a further 26 in progress expected to be delivered by their delivery dates which are set out in the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress published in May 2021.
There are 2 actions (17 and 29) that are currently forecast to be overdue against the planned delivery dates although there has been considerable progress on both actions. These are:
In collaboration with the Serious Fraud Office, the Home Office has established the Victims of Fraud Working Group, bringing together key stakeholders working with victims of fraud and cyber crime from across government, law enforcement, charities and voluntary organisations. This group met for the second time in September. The group is building a better understanding of the national fraud landscape to help understand a victim’s journey and how their needs can be met.
The Home Office is supporting National Trading Standards in the national rollout of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH). The hubs are in the process of being rolled out within England and Wales and will improve the quality of victim care available to local fraud victims by establishing a holistic multi-agency support service that listens to victims and works with them to address their immediate and longer-term needs.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the 52 recommendations set out in the Government's Economic crime plan 2019 to 2022, published on 12 July 2019, how many of those recommendations his Department (a) has implemented, (b) is in the progress of implementing and (b) has not yet implemented and are overdue in line with the deadlines set in that plan.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
HMG are making significant progress delivering the Economic Crime Plan 2019-2022. Of the 52 actions, 24 actions are complete with a further 26 in progress expected to be delivered by their delivery dates which are set out in the Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress published in May 2021.
There are 2 actions (17 and 29) that are currently forecast to be overdue against the planned delivery dates although there has been considerable progress on both actions. These are:
In collaboration with the Serious Fraud Office, the Home Office has established the Victims of Fraud Working Group, bringing together key stakeholders working with victims of fraud and cyber crime from across government, law enforcement, charities and voluntary organisations. This group met for the second time in September. The group is building a better understanding of the national fraud landscape to help understand a victim’s journey and how their needs can be met.
The Home Office is supporting National Trading Standards in the national rollout of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH). The hubs are in the process of being rolled out within England and Wales and will improve the quality of victim care available to local fraud victims by establishing a holistic multi-agency support service that listens to victims and works with them to address their immediate and longer-term needs.