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Written Question
Land Registry: Blockchain
Friday 22nd December 2023

Asked by: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2023 to Question 4876 and with reference to the report noted in the Answer of 27 November 2023 to Question 2866 on Land Registry: Blockchain, whether her Department is taking steps to implement blockchain technologies in areas not related to cryptoassets for finance.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given in response to PQ4875.

My department will continue to monitor developments in the use of both financial and non-financial applications of blockchain technology and will work with other government departments and industry to ensure we maximise its potential to spur UK growth and innovation.


Written Question
Schools: Blockchain and Non-fungible Tokens
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve awareness of (a) blockchains and (b) Non-Fungible Tokens in schools.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed. Pupils receive financial education through the National Curriculum for mathematics and citizenship which, for secondary school-aged pupils, includes compulsory content covering the functions and uses of money, financial products and services, and the need to understand financial risk.

Schools have flexibility over how they design their curricula, and can tailor it to the needs of their pupils.

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPs) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England in November 2021 to support school leaders to enhance their financial education provision.

The department will continue to work closely with the MaPs and other stakeholders such as HM Treasury to support the teaching of financial education to children and young people, including novel financial products.


Written Question
Terrorism: Non-fungible Tokens
Monday 18th December 2023

Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using Non-Fungible Tokens to tackle the financing of terrorist organisations through cryptocurrencies.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

The UK’s Counter Terrorism (CT) legislation criminalises terrorism financing in all its forms. The Government keeps under review our legislative tools to ensure that we keep pace with evolving terrorist financing threats.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency (ECCT) Act 2023, created new powers for law enforcement to seize, detain or freeze, and forfeit terrorist cryptoassets, alongside other forms of terrorist property. The ECCT Act is future-proofed to allow further technological advancements in digital currency to be captured under the new civil recovery powers.

The UK continues to engage with international partners to mitigate illicit and terrorist finance risks associated with cryptoassets including non-fungible tokens, and to share best practice for meeting international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). To ensure that terrorist organisations are unable to exploit blockchain technology, the UK has also, as of September 2023, implemented the FATF’s 'Travel Rule' which extends information sharing and retention for cryptoasset transfers to detect both illicit and terrorist financing.


Written Question
Blockchain and Non-fungible Tokens
Thursday 14th December 2023

Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she is taking steps to promote public awareness of (a) blockchain and (b) Non-Fungible Tokens.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

I refer the Honourable Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham to the answer given in response to PQ 4875 and PQ 4876.


Written Question
Land Registry: Blockchain
Monday 11th December 2023

Asked by: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2023 to Question 2866, whether she plans to take steps to further roll out the use of blockchain technologies.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

This Government is committed to maximising the benefits and minimising the risks of new technologies. The Government has committed to increasing public expenditure on R&D to £20 billion per annum by 2024/2025. This cash increase will support the growth of innovator hubs and continue to fund a range of R&D programmes which will help boost the potential of new technologies including blockchain.

My department will continue to monitor the development of distributed ledger technology to ensure we maximise its potential to spur UK growth and innovation.


Written Question
Land Registry: Blockchain
Monday 11th December 2023

Asked by: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2023 to Question 2866 on Land Registry: Blockchain, what steps she is taking to overcome the regulatory uncertainty associated with blockchain technologies.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government is committed to creating a regulatory environment in which firms can innovate, while maintaining financial stability and clear regulatory standards so that people can use new blockchain technologies both reliably and safely.


Cryptoasset markets, for example, continue to develop with increasing pace and complexity, which brings risk as well as opportunity. Risk-taking is a part of the innovation cycle, however ongoing turbulence in the cryptoasset markets has highlighted some of the implications for markets and investors. We think this reinforces the case for clear, effective, timely regulation. The Government is therefore proposing to bring a broad suite of new cryptoasset activities into the regulatory perimeter for financial services for the first time. This includes exchange activities, custody and lending.


HM Treasury launched a consultation on the Future Financial Services Regulatory Regime for Cryptoassets in February and published its response to stakeholder feedback and final proposals on 30 October. The consultation delivers on the Government’s commitment to bring forward proposals for regulating activities relating to the trading and investment of cryptoassets, such as Bitcoin.


The Government has already taken action to address risks to consumers and market integrity in cryptoasset markets. Cryptoassets were brought into scope of UK anti-money laundering legislation in 2020, and following the government’s legislation, the financial regulator has commenced enforcement for cryptoassets financial promotions, requiring them to be fair, clear and not misleading.


More broadly, my department will continue to monitor developments in the use of blockchain technology and will work with other government departments to identify where this could require the introduction of further regulation.


Written Question
Land Registry: Blockchain
Monday 27th November 2023

Asked by: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Answer of 26 October 2023 to Question 204013 on Land Registry, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using blockchain technology when digitising the land registry.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

HM Land Registry’s (HMLR’s) Digital Street research and development programme carried out a successful research piece and prototype into Blockchain technologies in 2020 and a summary of the research work can be found here.


Written Question
Land Registry
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using blockchain technology in digitising the land registry.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Government strongly believes that there are significant opportunities from digitising HM Land Registry (HMLR) and making more information freely-available. HMLR is also committed to promoting digital innovation in the property market. In recent years, it has introduced digital tools relating to electronic signatures and a standard for digital identity solutions. HMLR is working collaboratively with stakeholders in the conveyancing sector and is considering a range of technologies to contribute to a truly digital, automated conveyancing process.

Government’s Roadmap to a Digital Future includes digital transformation in Government by “automating manual processes”. Almost 90% of HMLR’s applications are received via digital application routes and the majority of HMLR’s services are already automated. HMLR continues to increase automation to drive greater efficiency and deliver maximum value for the taxpayer, and to increase the proportion of end-to-end digital processes.


Written Question
Tickets: Touting
Monday 11th September 2023

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make it her policy to ban ticket touting.

Answered by John Whittingdale

HM Government is committed to supporting fair and transparent ticket pricing and tackling unacceptable behaviour in this market.

We have strengthened the law in relation to ticketing information requirements and have introduced a criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets online than is allowed. We also support the work of enforcement agencies in this area, such as the Competition and Markets Authority, National Trading Standards, and the advertising industry's own regulator the Advertising Standards Authority.

We believe there is a role for a responsible secondary ticketing market, and ultimately, ticket pricing strategies are a matter for event organisers and ticketing platforms, providing they comply with relevant legislation, particularly regarding transparency to customers on how tickets are priced, in order to help consumers make a fair and informed decision.

Policy on secondary ticketing is jointly owned within Government by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business & Trade (DBT). DBT has lead responsibility for policy on consumer protection and its enforcement, in partnership with National Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority, whilst DCMS leads on the specific area of secondary ticketing for DCMS-related events (sport, live music, theatre, etc.).

Our joint overarching policy aim has been to address abuses in the ticketing market and improve consumers’ opportunities to buy tickets for recreational, sporting, and cultural events, whilst ensuring there are no unintentional consequences for the operations of the events sector and primary and secondary ticketing market.

Our policy aims are delivered through a mixture of targeted legislation (primarily the Consumer Rights Act 2015), backed up by robust action by enforcement agencies, and encouraging industry-led approaches, largely through the exploitation of technological developments (e.g. use of blockchain and ‘ticketless tickets’ on mobiles). Our approach is underpinned by the findings of an independent review of consumer protection measures in the market, undertaken by Professor Michael Waterson, published in May 2016.

Professor Waterson specifically considered the idea of banning the secondary ticketing market entirely. His conclusions, with which we agreed in our response to the review, are that:

i) a ban would not lead to the absence of secondary ticketing, but would simply drive it underground/offshore, with implications for raised levels of fraud;

ii) several primary operators have chosen to link up with secondary agencies suggesting their implicit approval of such activities;

iii) a significant proportion of tickets on secondary sites are priced below face value, offering a useful service to consumers and allowing more people to attend the event.


Written Question
Islamic State: Non-fungible Tokens
Tuesday 25th July 2023

Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that ISIS loses any capability to raise funds in the UK through the use of (1) non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and (2) other ways to exploit NFT technology.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

The government has implemented various measures to combat terrorist financing, disrupt funding of terrorist groups, and address the illicit crypto use and emerging fintech.

This includes extending the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) to the cryptoasset sector in January 2020. The UK assesses cryptoasset Money Laundering and Terrorist Finance (ML/TF) risks case-by-case, allowing the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) to regulate the rapidly evolving industry. Firms involved in activities that are described as involving Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) will be supervised and subject to enforcement, if they deal with cryptoassets as defined in the regulations.

Separately, the traditional art market is regulated for AML purposes so businesses dealing with NFTs which could reasonably be classified as “works of art” and meet the wider relevant criteria for supervision by HMRC, are required to comply with AML regulations to combat terrorist financing.

To prevent terrorist organisations such as ISIS exploiting blockchain technology, the UK is implementing the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF's) 'Travel Rule') which enhances information sharing and retention for cryptoasset transfers to detect terrorist financing.

We are also updating UK CT legislation with the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency (ECCT) Bill to prevent terrorist groups from exploiting NFT technology. This empowers law enforcement to seize, detain, freeze, and forfeit terrorist cryptoassets, with the revised definition of cryptoassets encompassing various technologies that utilize cryptography and distributed ledger technology, including NFTs.

The UK continues to engage internationally to mitigate illicit finance risks associated with cryptoassets including NFTs, and constantly reviews legislative tools to ensure we can keep pace with evolving terrorist financing threats.