Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to help ensure those people who commit fraud and financial scams through sending fraudulent (a) text messages, (b) phone calls and (c) emails are prosecuted.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government is increasing law enforcement investigative capacity to tackle fraud, including offences originating from text messages, phone calls and emails. The Spending Review has allocated £400 million to tackle economic crime, including fraud. This is in addition to the funding that the Home Office commits each year to the National Economic Crime Centre in the National Crime Agency (NCA), and police forces.
The Government recognises that to increase prosecution rates, there needs to be an increased pipeline of cases under investigation. We are working with City of London Police on replacing Action Fraud with a more efficient new system that will provide better intelligence to forces to aid prosecutions. Improvements are already being rolled out and more are coming, with the new service expected to be fully operational by 2024.
Having piloted new fraud investigation teams in four Regional Organised Crime Units, we are expanding these and rolling them out across all ROCUs. The Government is also increasing law enforcement investigative capacity in the City of London Police, as national lead force for fraud, and establishing a new fraud investigative function in the NCA. The pilot of a national cyber crime force focused on fraud, based in the NCA was set out in the 2021 Statement of Progress on the Economic Crime Plan. The NCA’s pilot has delivered new tasking, intelligence and strategic communications capabilities in the NCA. This new national cyber crime force focused on fraud will be fully established by 2025.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has received representations on unauthorised text messages causing charges for consumers.
Answered by Matt Warman
DCMS regularly engages with industry, regulators and other government departments on the issue of nuisance communications, including unsolicited marketing communications.
Services which charge consumers for receiving text messages (premium SMS) are regulated by the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA). In 2019, the PSA took enforcement action against companies for misleading and charging consumers for services without their consent, and introduced new rules to require a two-stage approval process before taking out a new subscription service. The PSA also extended these requirements to one-off purchases in their 2021 Code of Practice.
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), organisations must not send unauthorised marketing text messages to individuals without their prior consent, and consumers must be able to opt-out of future messaging, free of charge except for the cost of the initial transmission of refusal.
If consumers are concerned about receiving unauthorised marketing texts, they can report these to the Information Commissioner’s Office. In relation to SMS charging, we would encourage people to contact the PSA to seek advice.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a loaning scheme to give older people laptops, tablets or phones to enable familiarisation and to trial usage of IT devices.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is focused on building a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone. DCMS is responsible for coordinating HMG digital inclusion policy, and aims to ensure that as many people as possible, no matter their age, have a base level of digital skills, as well as internet access.
The cross-cutting nature of digital inclusion means that relevant policies and levers sit across multiple government departments. Rather than setting out a standalone strategy for digital inclusion, DCMS works with the rest of government to ensure departments take digitally excluded people into consideration when delivering public services.
To improve access to digital skills, the government has introduced a digital entitlement for adults with no or low digital skills. This allows older people wishing to acquire essential digital skills to gain specified digital qualifications, up to level 1, free of charge. Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQs), introduced alongside the digital entitlement, are based on new national standards which set out the digital skills people need to get on in life and work. We also support the provision of essential digital skills training in community settings through the Adult Education Budget.
Public libraries play an important role in tackling digital exclusion. Around 2,900 public libraries in England provide a trusted network of accessible locations with staff, volunteers, free wifi, public PCs, and assisted digital access to a wide range of digital services. Volunteers and library staff have been trained in digital skills so that they can provide library users with support in using digital applications and services.
Under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, it falls to local authorities to deliver a comprehensive and efficient library provision that meets local needs. It is not for the department to require the precise provision of library services. The provision of portable devices to lend is something library services are increasingly delivering. We know that at least a quarter of library services in England already provide portable electronic devices for loan, generally targeted at those more likely to be digitally disadvantaged.
Help is available for low income households to access broadband, mobile and landline services. A range of low-cost social tariffs are available to those on Universal Credit, and a number specifically include individuals on Pension Credit. These tariffs are available to eligible households in 99% of the UK. Ofcom, the independent regulator, has a statutory duty to review the affordability of telecommunication services, and we continue to work closely with Ofcom to monitor the market.
We understand that some older people are also hesitant to access online services because they fear that they may become victims of fraud, or that it is an unsafe environment for their personal data. For this reason, we are taking a number of steps to improve the safety and trustworthiness of the online space, including:
Increasing online safety by introducing the Online Safety Bill to Parliament, which sets new rules for firms which host user-generated content, and focuses on protecting people from online scams.
Enabling the widespread use of secure and accessible digital identity solutions that meet the needs of all those who wish to use them, by setting standards, establishing governance, removing legislative blockers, and engaging with industry and civil society groups.
There are currently no plans to introduce an e-cycle scheme for IT equipment, or commission an app for older people. We are aware that for older people with disabilities, poor design of apps or websites can be a significant barrier to online access. The Central Digital and Data Office monitors compliance with the regulations for the accessibility of public sector websites. Charities such as Age UK and AbilityNet play an important role in assisting people with access to technology and the internet.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many reports the National Cyber Security Centre received regarding SMS scams via the 7726 number in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) acts to remove malicious scams from the internet as part of its Active Cyber Defence programme. In addition to proactive identification and removal of malicious websites, the NCSC also acts upon reports from the public. '7726' is a number all mobile customers using UK networks can text to report unwanted SMS messages or phone calls on a mobile. The number '7726' was chosen because it spells 'SPAM' on an alphanumeric phone keypad. This service is operated by phone providers.
The NCSC's pioneering Active Cyber Defence programme has taken down 2.3 million cyber-enabled commodity campaigns - including 442 phishing campaigns.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) reported instances, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions for fraud conducted by text message in (i) 2018, (ii) 2019, (iii) 2020 and (iv) 2021.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The number of prosecutions and convictions for fraud offences that were conducted through phone calls is not centrally held in the court proceedings database, as the specific use of phone calls is not separately identified from wider fraud offences in legislation. Equally, offences conducted by text message and online are not separately identified in legislation. Identifying these offences separately would require a manual search of court records, which would be at disproportionate costs.
Published figures provide the number of prosecutions and convictions for the following offences that may include offences of fraud which occurred online, through phone calls or by text:
Computer Misuse Act 1990
Fraud Act 2006
The number of prosecutions and convictions can be found by searching for the above offences in the ‘Detailed offence’ filter in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool available here:
Information on the number of recorded fraud offences, which may help to answer part (a) of the questions, is held by the Home Office
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle text scams.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Fraudsters will use any means they can, including through highly deceptive and sophisticated techniques such as text messaging scams, to trick people into handing over their hard-earned money.
This Government is committed to protecting people from all types of fraud and pursuing those who perpetuate these crimes wherever possible. In May, we published a Statement of Progress on the Economic Crime Plan which committed to developing a comprehensive Fraud Action Plan.
The Government has also worked jointly with the telecommunications industry to agree a Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter. Under the charter, telecommunications providers have committed to identify and implement techniques to block smishing texts.
We continue to encourage the public to forward suspicious text messages to 7726 (which is free of charge) and anyone who has been a targeted by fraud to report it. Action Fraud is the national reporting service for all victims of fraud and cybercrime and can be contacted by phone on 0300 123 2040 or through their website, currently available at: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime.
This information is being used by the City of London Police, the National Cyber Security Centre, and the National Crime Agency to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle the increase in the number of sophisticated scam text messages being received and resultant financial losses by the victims of those scams.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Fraudsters will use any means they can, including through highly deceptive and sophisticated techniques such as text messaging scams, to trick people into handing over their hard-earned money.
This Government is committed to protecting people from all types of fraud and pursuing those who perpetuate these crimes wherever possible. It is for this reason as part of the 2020 Spending Review, the Government committed a further £63m to the Home Office to tackle economic crime, including fraud. In May, we published a Statement of Progress on the Economic Crime Plan which committed to developing a comprehensive Fraud Action Plan.
We are working closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and the telecommunication industry to tackle fraud carried out through texts and calls and close those vulnerabilities criminals too easily exploit. We are also engaging with the banking sector to ensure victims are not left out of pocket through no fault of their own. Certain banks are subject to the Contingent Reimbursement Model; a voluntary code signed up to by some banks, which commit them to reimbursing victims of fraud. More information on this can be found here:
www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk/contingent-reimbursement-model-code/.
We continue to encourage the public to forward suspicious text messages to 7726 (which is free of charge) and anyone who has been a targeted by fraud to report it. Action Fraud is the national reporting service for all victims of fraud and cybercrime and can be contacted by phone on 0300 123 2040 or through their website:
http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud.
All of this information is being used by the City of London Police, the National Cyber Security Centre, and the National Crime Agency to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with phone companies on increasing cooperation between (a) phone companies and (b) public authorities to counter mobile phone fraud.
Answered by Matt Warman
Law enforcement partners have stepped up their efforts to tackle this type of crime, arresting over a hundred criminals involved in some of the most despicable types of fraud and taking down thousands of phone numbers as well as fake websites and email addresses.
The DCMS and Home Office are working closely with telecommunications providers, regulators and consumer groups to protect the public from crimes such as mobile phone fraud. As part of this work, we are developing a voluntary charter of the actions telecoms companies will take to prevent fraud.
The Government is also exploring a range of measures aimed at tackling the criminal abuse of mobile telecommunications across a range of different crime types including fraud.
We are encouraging the public to forward suspicious text messages to 7726 (which is free of charge) and continue to encourage anyone who has been targeted by a scam to report it to Action Fraud.
We have supported the National Trading Standards Scams Team to roll out call blocking devices to vulnerable people, to protect some of the most vulnerable in society from nuisance calls and scams.
The Government has banned cold calls from personal injury firms and pensions providers unless the consumer has explicitly agreed to be contacted. It has introduced director liability for nuisance calls.
The Government will take further action through our Fraud Action Plan, an ambitious approach grounded in prevention, education, effective enforcement and regulatory reforms.
The Government has launched a dedicated web page on protecting individuals and businesses from COVID-19 related fraud, with easy-to-follow tips and a list of places you can get help and advice if you think you are being scammed.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on developing a strategy to tackle phone call and text message financial scams.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Officials in our departments have been working closely to explore a range of different measures aimed at tackling the criminal abuse of mobile telecommunications across the different crime types, including fraud.
The Government takes fraud very seriously and will continue to work closely with telecommunications providers, regulators, law enforcement agencies and consumer groups to protect the public from these crimes. This includes developing a voluntary charter of actions that the telecoms companies will implement to prevent fraud.
Later this year, the Government will take further action through a Fraud Action Plan, an approach grounded in prevention, education, effective enforcement and regulatory reforms.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2018 to Question 123531, on Attorney General: Procurement, if he will list (a) the suppliers of and (b) the purpose of the (i) the Government Legal Department's contracts with the eight strategic suppliers (ii) the CPS's six contracts with strategic suppliers, (iii) the Serious Fraud Office's three contracts with strategic suppliers and (iv) Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate's contracts with which two strategic suppliers.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2018 to Question 123531, the table below summarises the purpose of the six contracts between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and government strategic suppliers.
Supplier | Purpose of contract |
Capita | Supply of interim and temporary staff let via a pan government framework. |
CGI | (1) ICT Applications, Hosting and Management let via a pan government framework. (2) Managed payroll services let via a pan government framework. (3) Oracle finance system managed service let via a pan government framework. (4) Fully managed ICT services including; applications, hosting and management, system integration and management, service desk and end user computing. |
Vodafone | National contract let via the Cabinet Office G-Cloud framework for managed video conferencing services. |
In addition, the CPS has no major contracts but multiple agreements with the following government strategic suppliers:
BT –for land line phones, alarm systems and business broadband lines.
Microsoft - for MS office products, server and networking applications and other software products.
Oracle - for server and networking applications and other software products.
The table below summarises the purpose of the contracts between the Government Legal Department (GLD) and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) and government strategic suppliers. It is the policy to engage with suppliers using central government frameworks and call off arrangements.
Supplier | GLD – purpose of contract | HMCPSI - purpose of contract |
BT plc | Provision of phone services for business continuity (disaster recovery). | Provision of mobile connectivity services and video conferencing at the York office |
Cap Gemini | Provision of a supplier invoice receipt and scanning service; provision of a cloud-based invoice approval and electronic document management system; and secure destruction of paper documents. |
|
Capita | Predominately temporary staff, mainly lawyers, and training courses. |
|
Fujitsu | Provision of e-disclosure services to support legal cases. |
|
Microsoft | Software licences and support for Microsoft products, for example, Windows and Office Suites. |
|
Mitie | Office cleaning services. |
|
Oracle | Software licences and support. |
|
Vodafone | Provision of mobile phone and connectivity services. | Provision of mobile phone and connectivity services. |
The table below summarises the purpose of the contracts between the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and government strategic suppliers.
Supplier | Purpose of contract |
Amey | Facilities management |
BT | Network lines |
Capita | IT services |
The table below summarises the purpose of the contracts between the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and government strategic suppliers.
Supplier | Purpose of contract |
BT PLC | Broadband lines at Southwark Crown Court |
Capita | IT support contract |
Vodafone | network services contract |