Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help improve the ability of telecommunications providers to (a) identify and (b) block scam calls.

Tackling fraud is a priority for this Government. We are working closely with industry, law enforcement, and consumer groups to identify and prosecute criminal activity of this nature.

On 5 November 2025, Government published the second Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter. This includes a unified set of actions for government and industry to help strengthen trust in voice communications and improve the security, traceability and reliability of calls.

On 9 March 2026, the Home Office published its new Fraud Strategy which sets out how the Government will work with our partner organisations to make the UK a much harder place for criminals to operate. As part of the Strategy, the Government has established a new Online Crime Centre: as of April 2026, the police, GCHQ, banks, and telecommunications and tech firms are working in one place to drive the response to online fraud.

Government also works closely with Ofcom, which has a duty to protect consumers and to ensure that UK numbers are not misused. Ofcom has made several changes to help reduce scams, including since January 2025 requiring operators to block landline calls from abroad illegitimately imitating UK numbers.