Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of rent scammers fraudulently registering for the Property Redress Scheme.

The government recognises the harm caused when fraudulent operators misuse legitimate schemes.

Following recent cases, my Department has worked with tenancy deposit protection providers to strengthen safeguards, including adding a fraud disclaimer to insured deposit protection certificates, enhancing tenant communications about tenancy fraud, and reviewing verification and due diligence checks.

We are actively working with National Trading Standards, redress schemes, and other approved government schemes to consider whether further verification requirements are needed.