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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to prevent scam and nuisance calls exploiting unknowing consumers.

The Government takes all types of fraud, including those operating through telephones, extremely seriously.

The Government is taking forward a range of measures to tackle nuisance calls, which will increase consumer protection and choice by strengthening the Information Commissioner's Office's (ICO) ability to take enforcement action against organisations that break the law.

Specific actions include; lowering the threshold under the the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003 (PECR) to make it easier for the ICO to take action against organisations that break the law, resulting in £3,420,000 worth of fines issued; and we recently made an amendment to PECR, requiring direct marketing companies registered in the UK, to display Calling Line Identification.

The Department is also working closely with Home Office who recently launched a new joint fraud taskforce to tackle the issue of scams. Further information about the taskforce is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-secretary-launches-new-joint-fraud-taskforce