Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether protections for victims of fraud have changed since July 2024.

The Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously and is dedicated to protecting the public from this appalling crime. In response to a developing threat landscape, and honouring its manifesto commitment to do so, the Government will publish a new, expanded Fraud Strategy, setting out its approach to tackling fraud, including victim support and public resilience. The Fraud strategy will set out the direction of partnership between Government, law enforcement, industry and the international community to tackle this serious crime.

To protect consumers, under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has introduced mandatory reimbursement for APP scams taking place over the Faster Payment system. This came into force on 7 October 2024.

Enforcement of the APP scam reimbursement regime is a matter for the PSR, but to monitor the success and impact of this, the PSR has committed to commission an independent post implementation review of its policy after 12 months of the policy being in force.