Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to allow businesses to share data for the purpose of tackling fraud.

The Government is working with industry to close the vulnerabilities in systems, processes and businesses that are exploited by fraudsters and ensure they have the necessary tools to protect themselves from fraudsters. This is why the Home Office will shortly be publishing a new strategy to address the threat of fraud.

Reforms in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will also enable businesses to share information more easily for the purposes of preventing, investigating or detecting economic crime by disapplying civil liability for breaches of confidentiality for firms who share information to combat economic crime. This includes for the prevention of fraud. In parallel, reforms to GDPR via provisions in the Data Protection and Digital Identity Bill will provide a clearer legal basis for businesses sharing information for crime prevention purposes.