Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he is considering legislative proposals to strengthen the ability to tackle (a) phishing, (b) online payment fraud and (c) other cybercrime.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Crimes such as phishing and online payment fraud are already criminalised under the Fraud Act [2006] and the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA). To ensure that online platforms are doing all they can to further protect the public the Government passed the Online Safety Act (OSA) in November 2023. Fraud is included as a priority offence under the Act, which means tech companies are now required to tackle fraudulent content on their platform that is ‘user-generated’ or face the possibility of significant fines. The Act’s fraudulent advertising duty will also require certain categories of companies to stop fraudulent advertising appearing on their platforms.
The Government published the Online Fraud Charter in November 2023; a voluntary agreement with the largest companies in the tech sector, designed to raise best practice across the sector and deliver a much quicker and more targeted response than regulation. As part of the Charter, signatories have committed to supporting the Government’s Stop! Think Fraud campaign. This was a major campaign – across TV, radio, social media and billboards – that aim’s to improve public awareness by streamlining and amplifying messaging. The campaign, and supporting website, will make it easier for the public to recognise fraud and take steps to protect themselves, their family and friends.
Furthermore, the Government is committed to ensuring that the CMA, the UK’s key piece of cybercrime legislation which criminalises unauthorised access to computer systems and data remains up to date and effective to tackle criminality. We are currently reviewing the CMA, and the Home Office will provide an update to Parliament on any proposals that we will take forward in due course.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department plans to take to (a) monitor and (b) enforce the removal of illegal content on platforms with end-to-end encryption.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Online Safety Act 2023 places legal obligations on tech companies to prevent and rapidly remove illegal content.
The Act’s illegal content safety duties mean that in-scope services will have to prevent users from encountering illegal content, such as child sexual exploitation and abuse. These provisions will come into force in due course.
The Online Safety Act is “technology agnostic” and focuses on the outcomes and behaviours it's trying to regulate, rather than targeting specific technologies, platforms and services. The Online Safety Act requires digital services to put in place proportionate systems and processes to make their platforms safe, whatever the design of the platform, informed by their own risk assessment of their service and its functionalities.
The UK Government supports strong encryption provided that it can be implemented safely and in a way that does not undermine legitimate law enforcement. But there does not necessarily need to be a choice between protecting children and privacy and it is right to require companies to keep children safe.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to enhance cybersecurity infrastructure to help tackle phishing scams through (a) text messaging and (b) fake payment websites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Criminal Justice Bill will introduce a new offence of supplying or possessing “SIM farm” devices, which allow criminals to send scam texts to thousands of people at the same time, without good reason or undertaking adequate due diligence.
In addition, the Government and Industry have signed the Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter, a voluntary agreement to improve counter-fraud efforts. Under the Telecommunications Charter, the sector has introduced firewalls that detect and stop scam texts from reaching customers. The firewalls have stopped 960million scam text messages since January 2022.
Furthermore, domain registrars, Internet infrastructure (IIPs) and service providers (ISPs) operate robust voluntary arrangements for filtering, blocking and takedown of malicious websites, which is supported by the operational work of our agencies and law enforcement. NCSC also works in collaboration with industry partners to present ISPs with real-time threat data that enables them to instantly block access to known fraudulent or malicious websites. This has a major impact in protecting citizens from cyber- and cyber-facilitated crimes.
Where voluntary arrangements prove unsuccessful, we are introducing a new legislative power will provide law enforcement and investigative agencies with a formal process to suspend IP addresses and domain names that are being used to facilitate serious crime. This power will also be introduced as part of the Criminal Justice Bill.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the financial loss to UK residents due to (a) fraudulent text messages and (b) fake payment websites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Fraud strategy estimates that in 2019/20 the financial loss from fraud offences was £3.1bn.
A link to the Fraud strategy can be found here: Fraud Strategy 2023
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he is taking steps to enhance the enforcement capabilities at borders to prevent the smuggling of puppies and kittens into the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Border Force’s number one priority is to keep our borders safe and secure, and we will never compromise on this. Border Force officers work tirelessly, working closely with law enforcement agencies to share intelligence.
Border Force has extensive powers to examine and control traffic for a wide variety of purposes, and through its work at the border is able to examine vehicles and freight and ensure detections of illegal imports are referred to the most relevant authority or enforcement agency for action.
If live animals are detected, Border Force is responsible for the detention of the animals and vehicle, and then referring to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) at the appropriate border control post for further enforcement action.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing new policies to help improve protection for people at risk of domestic homicide in all regions.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
In the 2022 Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan the government outlined a package of measures to reduce domestic homicides and reform the Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) process.
DHRs are reviews into deaths related to domestic abuse which seek to identify what lessons can be learnt and implemented to prevent future deaths.
In June 2023, we launched the online DHR Library to help ensure police and partners have easy access to material to learn from previous homicides and prevent future deaths linked to domestic abuse.
The implementation of reforms to DHRs will improve our understanding and drive down the frequency of domestic homicides.
The Home Office also funds the collection of data on deaths related to domestic abuse through the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Domestic Homicide Project. The project brings together data and information on prior agency knowledge of victims and risk factors to improve the evidence base and subsequent policy responses for preventing domestic homicides.
To gain protection from domestic abuse a protective order can be applied for. Police can apply for a Domestic Violence Protection Order, victims can apply for a Non-Molestation Order and criminal courts can impose a Restraining Order on acquittal or conviction of a criminal offence. The introduction of the new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Order, will help simplify and strengthen the protection for victims avaliable, introducing new features like mandatory notification requirements and electronic monitoring (“tagging”). The new order will be piloted in Greater Manchester, the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, and Bromley, and with the British Transport Police.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to (a) assess and (b) improve the effectiveness of existing legal measures designed to protect (a) minority ethnic women and (b) all people from domestic abuse.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The government has taken a number of measures to strengthen legislation and protections for victims of domestic abuse.
This includes the measures set out in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which is helping transform our response to victims and bring perpetrators to justice.
Controlling or Coercive Behaviour within an intimate or family relationship was made a criminal offence under the Serious Crime Act 2015. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 removed the requirement for the parties to be ‘living together’ for the offence to occur, meaning it applies to intimate partners, ex-partners or family members, regardless of whether the victim and perpetrator live together.
The Domestic Abuse statutory guidance contains detailed sections setting out specifically how victims from ethnic minority backgrounds may experience additional barriers to identifying, disclosing, seeking help or reporting abuse.
The government continues to offer migrant victims in the UK who have, or last had, permission to be in the UK under the family Immigration Rules to apply for access to the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC).
The government will continue to work with the police and criminal justice agencies to ensure the law is used to maximum effect to protect victims of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how his Department monitors compliance with bail conditions in domestic abuse cases; and what measures are in place to intervene when violations occur.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Setting and monitoring pre-charge bail conditions is a matter for policing and the Home Office does not collect data on how this is achieved. This data may be held at force level.
Where a suspect breaches their conditions, the police may arrest this individual, hold them in custody and charge them with a separate offence or progress their original case. The 2020 bail reforms introduced a 3 hour pause on the custody clock to ensure that arrests for breach of bail do not have a negative impact on the overall case.
The Home Office have recently funded the development of a new module of the ‘Domestic Abuse Matters’ training for police, developed by the College of Policing and the sector. The new module of police training is targeted specifically at officers investigating domestic abuse offences to enable further improvement in police responses to domestic abuse incidents.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason sponsors are required to obtain consent from people they are sponsoring abroad before his Department will process queries; and what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of this change on the processing time of sponsorship cases.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data protection legislation requires the sponsor of an application to have written consent from the applicant giving them permission to receive information about their immigration matter before the Home Office can share details about the application with the sponsor.
The processing of applications is not itself affected by this requirement.
For MP enquiries, the MP Account Management (MPAM) Team require third party constituents to provide evidence of permission to show they are acting on behalf of another data subject. This is known as a Letter of Authority (LOA). MPs are given five working days to provide an LOA. If the MP has difficulties obtaining a LOA in this period, the Home Office will extend this period as long as they are notified that an extension is required within the original 5 working day window.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to support sponsors in obtaining consent from persons abroad within the five-day deadline; and what support his Department provides for cases where obtaining such consent within the deadline is not possible.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data protection legislation requires the sponsor of an application to have written consent from the applicant giving them permission to receive information about their immigration matter before the Home Office can share details about the application with the sponsor.
The processing of applications is not itself affected by this requirement.
For MP enquiries, the MP Account Management (MPAM) Team require third party constituents to provide evidence of permission to show they are acting on behalf of another data subject. This is known as a Letter of Authority (LOA). MPs are given five working days to provide an LOA. If the MP has difficulties obtaining a LOA in this period, the Home Office will extend this period as long as they are notified that an extension is required within the original 5 working day window.