Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what support the Intellectual Property Office provides to SMEs seeking to enforce registered copyright and trademark rights against overseas infringers.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Helping SMEs protect and enforce their intellectual property (IP) rights is an important priority for the UK Government. The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) provides support through its International IP Service, which offers guidance on protecting and enforcing IP overseas. This includes country and region-specific information on local regulatory frameworks, registration requirements, enforcement routes and common risks, as well as signposting to relevant overseas offices and enforcement authorities.
The IPO also maintains a network of IP attachés in key international markets, providing practical guidance to help UK businesses make informed decisions about protecting and enforcing their rights overseas.
Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of greater cross-agency action between the Intellectual Property Office, Trading Standards and Border Force on tackling counterfeiting.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government is reducing the sale of counterfeit goods by supporting Police, Trading Standards and Border Force to take targeted enforcement action, disrupt online sales, seize counterfeit goods and use Proceeds of Crime Act powers to recover criminal profits.
Between 2021 and 2023, Border Force seized counterfeit articles with an estimated retail value exceeding half a billion pounds. The volume of suspected counterfeit articles seized varied over this period, falling from more than 3 million articles in 2021 to just over 1 million in 2023. Of these seizures, 95% were confirmed as counterfeit in 2021 and 89% in 2023. The estimated retail value of destroyed counterfeit goods increased from £142 million in 2021 to over £200 million in 2023, indicating a trend towards lower volumes of higher-value items.
Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the timeliness of the Information Commissioner's Office in investigating complaints concerning the handling of special category health data.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
While DSIT acts as the ICO's sponsor department within government, the ICO is an independent regulator accountable to Parliament. The ICO has a statutory duty to investigate complaints from data subjects to the extent appropriate and reports annually to Parliament on its approach to complaints and investigations.
The ICO does not publish complaint handling times by category of personal data. However, it triages all complaints based on the level of harm that alleged non-compliant practices may pose to data subjects.
To address its backlog, the ICO has introduced a new data protection complaints framework setting out how it assesses and prioritises each case. In addition, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 introduced a new requirement for all data controllers to establish procedures for responding to complaints, aiming to resolve issues at the earliest stage and reduce premature escalation to the ICO.