Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the extent of the use of cold calling in relation to pension fund transfers.

The National Crime Agency monitors trends in fraudulent activity, including cold calls, to help target action. Whilst we cannot put a precise figure on transfer-related activity initiated by cold calls it is apparent that cold calling is a route often used by scammers. The public and industry can do their bit to help develop the intelligence picture by reporting concerns to Action Fraud (http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/).

More generally, both the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority are running information campaigns (Scorpion and ScamSmart respectively) as part of Project Bloom to raise the profile of the threat posed by pension and investment scams.