Internet

(asked on 20th June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of private companies using internet addresses suggesting those sites are linked to the government, such as GovNet.


Answered by
Lord True Portrait
Lord True
Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
This question was answered on 23rd June 2022

Government departments have a set of processes in place to tackle fraudulent websites set up by private companies, for example sites purporting to be government using government-type domains. The nature of the action depends on the type of site and can include asking the domain registrar to suspend the domain, reporting to Action Fraud or National Trading Standards or reaching out directly to organisations concerned to tell them to stop using misleading branding or information. In some cases, we work with the Government Legal Department to take direct legal action.

Some sites, although potentially misleading, are able to operate within legal boundaries. In these cases, we work to ensure that government services are correctly listed and rank highly in search engine results. This helps to ensure that they are easy for people to find and identify as government services. Where misleading websites have paid for prominent positioning in search results, we also raise this with the relevant search engine.

Reticulating Splines