Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are taking steps to ensure that all sports governing bodies funded by Sport England have regard to women and women's organisations, including through consultation, when considering the inclusion of trans women in women's sports.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
When it comes to competitive sport, His Majesty’s Government believes that fairness and safety has to be the primary consideration. We are clear that a way forward is needed which protects and shows compassion to all athletes, whilst being clear that the integrity of competition must be maintained. HM Government recently set out this position in the sport strategy, published in August.
The national governing bodies of sports set their own policies for who can participate in their sports domestically. The Sports Council Equality Group, which includes Sport England, has produced guidance to help governing bodies with this process. The Group published guidance relating to the inclusion of transgender people in September 2021, after extensive consultation and a review of scientific research. This guidance encourages governing bodies to conduct meaningful and respectful consultation within their sport to ensure that a wide range of opinions are sought.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 19 July (HL1969), on which specific pages of the National Cyber Security Centre's website their statistical data are published.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Full details of the NCSC’s comprehensive response to the proactive identification and removal of malicious activity on the internet can be found in its Active Cyber Defence Year 4 report: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/acd-report-year-four. This report outlines all the measures the NCSC takes to identify and remove the malicious activity before it ever reaches the public. Up to date SERS statistics can be found at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/report-suspicious-emails#section_1
If a person falls victim to a phishing email, that should be reported to the police via Action Fraud and it will be logged as a crime.
The 2021 Cyber Security Breaches Survey found that 32% of businesses identified experiencing phishing attacks in the previous 12 months. The survey does not ask about the proportion of phishing attacks on businesses that were successful. However the survey does find that, among the 39% businesses which identify any cyber breaches or attacks, one in five (21%) of these end up losing money, data or other assets.
The government does not hold similar statistics specifically related to phishing attacks against individual citizens.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 19 July (HL1969), what proportion of the 6,500,000 reports received by the Suspicious Email Reporting Service resulted in the removal (1) a scam, (2) a web address, and (3) both.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) provides the public with a route for the escalation and removal of suspected phishing campaigns. The automated SERS processes emails received from the public, and if a malicious web address (URL) is identified in the email, a take down request is submitted to the hosting provider. To date we have identified more than 97,500 individual malicious URLs for removal which equates to 50,5000 individual scam campaigns. Multiple reports of the same scams have been forwarded to SERS. The total number of reports to SERS stands at 6.5m as at 30th June 2021.
SERS is one tool in HMG’s response to cybercrime, and is intended to empower people to simply forward suspicious emails to the NCSC for action. Full details of the NCSC’s comprehensive response to the proactive identification and removal of malicious activity on the internet can be found in its Active Cyber Defence Year 4 report. This report outlines all the measures the NCSC takes to identify and remove the malicious activity before it ever reaches the public, and can be found at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/acd-report-year-four
If a person falls victim to a phishing email, that should be reported to Action Fraud and it will be logged as a crime.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people in the UK who were (1) successfully, and (2) unsuccessfully, phished in the last period for which records are available.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
39% of all UK businesses identified at least one cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months. Among these firms, the most common type of breach is related to phishing attacks (reported by around four-fifths of businesses (83%) which were attacked (CSBS 2021). This figure has risen from 72% in 2017 to 83% now. The Home Office is responsible for policy on cyber crime and fraud/scams.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, for the last period for which records are available, what proportion of phishing incidents reported to report@phishing.gov.uk resulted in (1) an email address being successfully blocked, (2) links to malicious websites being removed, or (3) both.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since launch in April 2020 the number of reports received by the NCSC’s Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERs) stands at more than 6,500,000 with the removal of more than 50,500 scams and 97,500 web addresses (URLs). In June there were up to 7000 individual URLs first identified by SERs submissions which were taken down.
Reporting figures are updated monthly on the NCSC website alongside information on SERS and protection against phishing can be found at Phishing: how to report to the NCSC
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, for the last period for which records are available, how many separate incidents the reports made to report@phishing.gov.uk referred to.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since launch in April 2020 the number of reports received by the NCSC’s Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERs) stands at more than 6,500,000 with the removal of more than 50,500 scams and 97,500 web addresses (URLs). In June there were up to 7000 individual URLs first identified by SERs submissions which were taken down.
Reporting figures are updated monthly on the NCSC website alongside information on SERS and protection against phishing can be found at Phishing: how to report to the NCSC
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many reports were made to report@phishing.gov.uk for the last period for which records are available.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since launch in April 2020 the number of reports received by the NCSC’s Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERs) stands at more than 6,500,000 with the removal of more than 50,500 scams and 97,500 web addresses (URLs). In June there were up to 7000 individual URLs first identified by SERs submissions which were taken down.
Reporting figures are updated monthly on the NCSC website alongside information on SERS and protection against phishing can be found at Phishing: how to report to the NCSC
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role Gendered Intelligence plays in filtering communications sent via (1) social media, or (2) web forms, in response to their campaigns.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
No specific assessment has been made. Gendered Intelligence are an independent charity and the government has no part to play in reviewing whether or not they filter the responses to their campaigns.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, to help protect the privacy of the public in using the proposed COVID-19 tracking app, they plan to bring into force immediately sections 77 and 78 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which would allow a maximum custodial sentence of two years for those convicted of unlawfully obtaining and selling personal data.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Existing law and NHS standards set out a framework of protective measures to ensure the app is legally compliant and meets the standards expected to keep data secure and confidential. This includes GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality in cases where data is provided that might identify an individual.
The data protection legislation provides the Information Commissioner with a range of enforcement powers to ensure organisations comply. As well as significant financial penalties for non-compliance, the 2018 Act includes a range of criminal offences for the very worst breaches of the legislation. This includes the offences of unlawfully obtaining data and re-identifying personal data that has been pseudonymised without lawful excuse. We are satisfied this provides a comprehensive framework and have no plans to increase the maximum penalties of any offences under the Act.
Sections 77 and 78 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 related to the historic offence of unlawfully obtaining personal data under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998. That offence and the relevant provisions in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act were repealed by the Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 11 March (HL2275), what is their policy on the inclusion of biologically male athletes in women's sports.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Decisions regarding the involvement of trans people in competitive sport is a matter for individual governing bodies and international federations. UK Sport and Sport England encourage National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to carefully consider all sides of the debate, and access the best and most up to date research before making decisions.
UK Sport’s funding agreements require NGBs to ensure all World Class Programme athletes comply with the eligibility criteria of the relevant International Federation and competition governing body.
In addition, both UK Sport and Sport England require all NGBs receiving public money to be compliant with UK equality legislation.
To support NGBs, the Sports Council Equality Group (SCEG) which includes Sport England, Sport Wales, Sport Scotland, Sport Northern Ireland and UK Sport is currently working to provide an up to date picture of the current landscape in both domestic and elite sport, to ultimately enable the best and fairest decisions to be made by our NGBs around transgender athletes in sport. This should be available before the end of the year.