Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make it her policy to amend the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 to (a) strengthen the powers and (b) expand the (i) jurisdictional reach and (ii) scope of the Cyber (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 to help reduce ransomware attacks.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The government is committed to calling out malicious cyber activities that threaten the UK's national interests and economic prosperity. Sanctions are an important part of our diplomatic toolkit, helping us to disrupt ransomware operations.

Our cyber sanctions regime allows us to impose cost and risk on those that carry out malicious cyber activity, and to deter others who consider similar acts. The regime is suitably broad, and allows us to freeze the assets of those around the world who have undermined the integrity, prosperity, or security of the UK and its partners. Under these powers, we have designated seventy-nine people, including sixteen members of prolific Russian cybercrime gang Evil Corp, and one of the senior leaders of LockBit which, at the time, was one of the most harmful ransomware operations affecting the UK.

We will continue to explore future use and implementation of our cyber sanctions regime against ransomware actors as part of a broader range of approaches to combat cybercrime globally.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps with mobile phone companies to introduce a (a) single and (b) central emergency telephone number paid for by mobile phone (i) operators and (ii) manufacturers to allow reporting by victims of unlocked mobile phone theft to report those thefts immediately; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on (A) (1) financial and (2) personal data theft and (ii) the number of police hours dedicated to mobile phone crimes.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Secretary and Policing Minister are determined to take the strongest possible action to reduce the number of phone thefts in London and elsewhere across the country.

This is a crime that causes significant distress to victims and fuels wider criminality. That’s why we are driving greater collaboration between policing leaders, the Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, leading tech companies and others to break the business model of mobile phone thieves. This has included exploring what technical interventions would be most effective, including discussion around improving reporting mechanisms when a mobile phone is stolen. Positive developments include commitments to improving visibility of unique identification numbers/IMEIs to help identify stolen devices and raising awareness of existing mechanisms for reporting the theft of mobile devices, which include calling 101, going to a local police station or reporting the crime anonymously via Crimestoppers.

All stakeholders must play their part in designing out and disincentivising this type of theft, disrupting the resale of stolen phones, exploring technological solutions to make devices harder to re-register or resell, and helping the public protect themselves and the data and personal information on their devices.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will hold discussions with his (a) Danish and (b) Greenlandic counterparts on the establishment of a NATO naval presence on the east coast of Greenland.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

NATO’s maritime posture is determined collectively by Allies rather than through bilateral negotiations. The UK has a close defence relationship with Denmark, including through NATO and the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will take steps with the Royal Household to establish an inventory of (a) publicly and (b) privately owned items in royal residences.

Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Royal Collection Trust is responsible for the care and conservation of the Royal Collection and there is already a publicly available inventory of object records held by the Royal Collection Trust on the rct.uk website.

Separately, the Royal Household maintains fixed asset registers, which are audited annually by the National Audit Office, for items funded by the Sovereign Grant.