Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing (a) social media and (b) telecoms firms into the scope of the mandatory advanced push payment reimbursement regime.

The government takes the issue of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud very seriously and is dedicated to protecting the public from this devastating crime. That is why the government legislated in the Financial Services & Markets Act 2023 to enable the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to require banks and other payment service providers to reimburse APP fraud victims.

The Online Safety Act introduces duties on platforms and services for having processes to remove illegal content, such as fraud. Companies found in breach will face a penalty of up to £18 million or ten per cent of their annual global turnover. The government has also recently agreed an online fraud charter with the world’s biggest tech companies, who have pledged to take additional action to block and remove fraudulent content from their sites.