Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what supplementary budgets and resources are being provided to Action Fraud and the Suspicious Email Reporting Service to handle incidents of impersonation and fraud relating to the NHS test and trace service, and to support effective action against the perpetrators.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Reporting fraud and suspicious emails forms part of the core business of Action Fraud (AF) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) respectively.
Whilst there is a risk that the number of fraud reports increases, we believe that AF’s services are sufficiently equipped to respond to these effectively from within their existing resources. We will work closely with City of London Police (owners of the Action Fraud service) to ensure that this still remains the case as the service is expanded.
With regard to any increase in reports to SERS, it is an automated system designed to triage and – if found to be malicious - act upon reports of suspicious emails. As an automated service it can scale accordingly, without the requirement for supplementary budget or resource. In the six weeks since its launch, it has received and automatically acted upon over 670,000 reports.
The Home Office, NCSC, City of London Police and other stakeholders are already working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure that the service is delivered in a way which minimises the risk of fraud.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 14 May (HL3707), what is the current status of their Suspicious Emails Reporting Service.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
In April 2020, the NCSC launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service. This initiative by the NCSC makes a significant contribution to the Government’s aim to make the UK the safest place to live and work online.
As of 14 May, the Suspicious Email Reporting Service has had more than 300,000 emails submitted, leading to over 2,500 unique URLs, which resulted in 600 bogus sites being taken down. Examples of threats the NCSC has removed with the help of the reporting service include:
- Scam web pages that have been flagged include mock-ups of official GOV.uk and TV licencing websites (visitors are lured into giving their billing information to scammers posing as these legitimate organisations).
- Scam web pages purporting to sell coronavirus linked bogus products such as testing kits, face makes and even vaccines. (The NCSC noted a rise in cyber crime exploiting the coronavirus pandemic last month.)
This automated email reporting service makes it easier than ever for people to help protect others from falling victim to scams. To use the reporting service, people are asked to simply forward suspect emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. If they are found to link to malicious content, it will be taken down or blocked, helping prevent future victims of crime.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what plans there are for the (1) long-term evaluation, and (2) follow-up, of the Valuing Everyone training sessions.
Answered by Lord McFall of Alcluith
Valuing Everyone is a training module designed specifically for Parliament that aims to raise awareness of, and confidence to tackle, bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct, as well as to highlight the sources of support available to those who have experienced this behaviour. Variations of this training are offered to staff of both Houses, members of both Houses and members’ staff.
The training is part of a suite of initiatives that together ensure that Parliament is a safe and respectful workplace, with zero tolerance of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct. The two Houses will continue to conduct regular surveys, among other measures, to evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives.
Participants are routinely asked to complete feedback forms, and the results of these (including those from MPs and Peers) demonstrate that participants have an overwhelmingly positive experience of the training, and in particular report that they are better able to recognise and call out unacceptable behaviour. These, together with ad hoc feedback from participants, allow an ongoing dialogue enabling the course to remain relevant and suitable for all parts of the parliamentary community. In addition, the training provider submits regular anonymised reports to the two Houses on themes that have emerged during the training, so that appropriate steps can be taken to address risks or to communicate more effectively about Parliament’s response to bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to add a link to the SAFERjobs scheme to webpages where they advise the public on how to report suspicious emails and phishing attempts.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is up to SAFERJobs to include any guidance that the government provides. The Government is, however, continuing to put out general advice to the public on staying safe online.
On 21 April the Government launched a revised Cyber Aware campaign, to coincide with the launch of the NCSC’s new Suspicious Email Reporting Service. The new campaign will:
We also recently launched a gov.uk page on coronavirus-related fraud and cybercrime. The page includes easy-to-follow steps for people to better protect themselves and signposts other relevant advice and tips. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-fraud-and-cyber-crime
The public should make all reports of fraudulent phishing emails and telephone calls to Action Fraud which is the national reporting facility for fraud and cyber crime https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what their policy is on the reporting by the public of fraudulent and phishing emails and telephone calls; to what email addresses or on what web pages such reports should be made; and what action the public may expect to be taken when such reports are made.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The public should make all reports of fraudulent phishing emails and telephone calls to Action Fraud which is the national reporting facility for fraud and cyber crime.
Action Fraud takes reports via its call centre and website. The contact centre’s operating hours are from 08:00 to 20:00 (Monday to Friday) but reports can be made at any time using their online reporting tool. There is also a dedicated 24/7 call service for live cyber incidents. The web pages can be found at: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
Crime reports received by Action Fraud are considered by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), both of which are operated by the City of London Police, the UK's national lead force for Fraud. Where enough evidence is available and viable leads are identified, actionable intelligence packages are created and sent to the appropriate local police force for them to consider whether they will adopt the report and commence enforcement activity. It remains the responsibility of local police to consider whether to progress any enforcement activity even where viable lines of enquiry have been identified by NFIB. Individuals can check the status of their reports through the website to see whether it’s been disseminated to a local force for investigation, and if an outcome has been recorded.
NFIB can also take down fraudulent websites, telephone numbers and close bank accounts linked to fraud.
Reports not deemed viable for investigation remain under constant consideration for links to newly reported crimes. The intelligence is also used to identify opportunities to disrupt offenders and to protect victims and prevent further frauds through warnings given out by Action Fraud through various channels and in collaboration with other counter fraud bodies and organisations.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their policy regarding the use of the phrase 'gender identity’, as opposed to the protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 of ‘gender reassignment’ in such official documents as the Hate Crime Operational Guidance and the Crown Prosecutions Service’s LGBT Hate Crimes Schools Pack.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
In the context of Government publications related to hate crime, the terms race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity are used to refer to the characteristics which offences can be aggravated by.
This terminology is consistent with the national definition of hate crime agreed between the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Crown Prosecution Service, and relevant legislation, including sections 145 and 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their policy concerning the recording of incidents involving the protected characteristic of sex under the Equality Act 2010 as hate crimes.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office collects and publishes statistics annually on the number of hate crime offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, broken down by five centrally monitored strands: race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity.
Operational guidance for recording of hate crimes is set out by the College of Policing and the latest published guidance is available here:
https://www.report-it.org.uk/files/hate_crime_operational_guidance.pdf
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Equality and Human Rights Commission about amendments to its guidance on the Equality Act 2010 to help providers of services understand how to handle requests for access to services and facilities from transgender people.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Those seeking to rely on the protections and exemptions contained in the Equality Act 2020 must be able to do so with confidence and clarity. The Equality and Human Rights Commission's statutory codes of practice on the Equality Act 2010 explain the provisions of the Act and the EHRC is responsible for updating these codes as necessary.
This Government has been clear that we must take the right steps to protect safe single-sex spaces for women and girls; their access should not be jeopardised. Some women's organisations have expressed concern that predatory men may abuse the gender recognition system, intended to support transgender adults. We have heard these concerns and are considering carefully our next steps.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Mr Steve Rodhouse, Director General (Operations) of the National Crime Agency, to the Home Secretary concerning the Offensive Weapons Bill, dated 11 October 2018, of the 17 rifles that the letter describes as having been stolen, how many were (1) full-bore target rifles, (2) hunting rifles, (3) .22 or other small calibre rifles; and how many of them were stolen from premises with security enhanced to level 3 of the Home Office Firearms Security Handbook; and whether the proportions of each of those categories of rifle compare to data from previous years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office does not routinely collect statistics on lost or stolen firearms. However, the National Firearms Threat Centre have provided the following information in relation to rifles reported stolen between 17 July 2018 and 10 October 2018.
Police records now show 20 rifles reported stolen during this period. Seven rifles were full-bore, six of which were most likely used for quarry shooting. The remaining rifles were .22 or other small calibres. All of the rifles could be used for target shooting.
Similar breakdowns are not readily available for previous years but the police advise there were 77 rifles reported stolen during the whole of 2018, compared to 71 during 2017. Information on the security arrangements of firearm owners is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative danger, when used by criminals, of lever release rifles, MARS rifles, and standard hunting rifles; and what evidence such assessment is based on.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government has included provisions in the Offensive Weapons Bill to prohibit rapid firing rifles which use the MARS and lever release mechanisms. The proposed prohibition is based on concerns from the police about the potential for serious misuse and loss of life if these weapons were to fall into the hands of criminals or terrorists, since they can discharge rounds at a much faster rate than conventional rifles and are significantly more dangerous.
That is not to say there is an imminent threat that these weapons are about to be used by criminals or terrorists but, in view of the threat assessment received, the Government has a clear duty to take preventative action to protect the public by making these weapons subject to more stringent controls.