Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle (a) online fraud and (b) cyber crime.

Measures to tackle online fraud will be set out in the upcoming fraud strategy. The Chancellor, Home Secretary and Secretary of State for DSIT have already written to the tech sector to request that companies go further and faster to fight fraud.

Cyber crime causes immense damage to people and businesses in the UK and is a top priority for the Government. Our approach to tackling cyber crime is set out in the UK Government’s National Cyber Strategy. We work closely with our international partners and law enforcement agencies such as the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), to reduce the harm caused by cyber attacks and bolster our resilience. This is mostly recently underscored by the Home Office’s current public consultation on legislative proposals to reduce ransomware payments to cyber criminals and increase incident reporting.

The Home Office’s cyber crime programme has boosted investment and expanded training to improve the law enforcement response to deliver improvements to the UK’s cyber resilience. We provide law enforcement with the necessary cyber skills and training at the national, regional, and local levels to ensure they have the capacity and expertise to deal with the perpetrators and provide support to the victims of cyber crime.