Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2019 to Question 220177 on Nuisance Calls, how many call blocking devices the Department plans to deliver to vulnerable people in (a) the UK and (b) Kent.

In March 2017 DCMS provided a grant of £500,000 to National Trading Standards to provide over 1500 call blocking devices to vulnerable people.

The Government is committed to continuing this work. The Chancellor announced in the 2018 Autumn Budget that the National Trading Standards will receive further funding to continue rolling out devices to vulnerable people.

The Government has agreed to provide up to £640,000 for this project. The National Trading Standards are currently undertaking a procurement process for a supplier for the call blocking devices. We are not yet therefore able to provide details of precisely how many devices this further funding will deliver.