The Home Office continually monitors the immigration system to mitigate any national security and other risks.

The Home Office and wider law enforcement have resources and processes in place to ensure that the UK offers no safe space for illicit finance, nor individuals who seek to undermine UK national security. Security checks are undertaken as part of all visa applications.

As of March 2021, online fraud was estimated, using data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, at 58% of fraud while the volume of fraud against individuals was 4.65 million incidents. The most recent estimate (December 2021) of fraud against individuals was 5.2 million incidents. However, an estimate of online fraud for this period is unavailable at present.

The Home Office does not collate statistics regarding costs to victims of online fraud. The most recent estimate of the total cost of fraud against individuals is £4.7 bn for the FY 2015/16. The Home Office also does not measure ‘success’ of technology platforms and enforcement authorities in identifying fraudulent sites and activity and countering them. The Home Office works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre who launched their Suspicious Email Reporting Service in April 2020. This has already led to over 11 million reports received and the removal of over 78,000 scams and 144,000 harmful websites to date.

The Government’s programme of work to tackle fraudulent online advertising in collaboration with industry includes the Online Safety Bill and the Online Advertising Programme.

The Government wishes to attract international students to study in the UK as they enhance our educational institutions both financially and culturally.

The Student Route has robust safeguards to prevent the types of historic immigration abuse seen a decade ago on the previous Tier 4 route, with international students now being a highly compliant cohort.

UKVI decision-makers can carry out verification checks on documents submitted with an application and may interview applicants to assess their credibility and intentions. Anyone who has used false documents, misrepresented their personal circumstances or practiced deception by any other means, will have their application refused and may face a ban on making further applications for up to 10 years.

All policy, including around financial and credibility requirements, is kept under review. UKVI also carry out a range of activities to assist sponsors in maintaining the integrity of the route, allowing them to identify possible risks and establish best practice.

The Government wishes to attract international students to study in the UK as they enhance our educational institutions both financially and culturally.

The Student Route has robust safeguards to prevent the types of historic immigration abuse seen a decade ago on the previous Tier 4 route, with international students now being a highly compliant cohort.

UKVI decision-makers can carry out verification checks on documents submitted with an application and may interview applicants to assess their credibility and intentions. Anyone who has used false documents, misrepresented their personal circumstances or practiced deception by any other means, will have their application refused and may face a ban on making further applications for up to 10 years.

All policy, including around financial and credibility requirements, is kept under review. UKVI also carry out a range of activities to assist sponsors in maintaining the integrity of the route, allowing them to identify possible risks and establish best practice.

We are deeply concerned about the growth and scale of online fraud, and the devastating financial and psychological impact it can have on individuals.

The Online Safety Bill will go far in tackling the threat of online fraud and increasing people's protection from the impact of scams posted on social media apps and dating sites. This includes some of the highest-harm frauds, such as investment and romance scams.

However, we recognise that more must be done and will consider all opportunities to better protect the public. We are committed to tackling those responsible and are working closely with law enforcement, regulators and social media companies to achieve this.

The Home Office collects quarterly data on the number of reports of fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) incidents made to Action Fraud that have been recorded as criminal offences by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB).

This data is published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on a quarterly basis and is available from June 2015 to June 2021 in table A5, which are attached.

Action Fraud reported that levels of fraud have increased since the pandemic. Fraud and CMA offences are collected and presented separately, though some fraud offences will often involve an element of online activity, but we are unable to provide a breakdown of these offences.

Crime Survey for England and Wales data for the proportion of offences flagged as cyber are collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are available for 2016/17 to 2019/20. The latest estimates by ONS for the year to March 2020 suggest that around 53% of all fraud is online enabled.

Treasury ministers and officials engage with a number of organisations and stakeholders on a variety of policy issues.

The Government expects all companies to obey the law and relevant regulations. Anyone with evidence of forgery taking place should report it to their bank in the first instance. If their concerns remain, or they do not have a direct relationship with the lender, they should report it to the relevant authorities.

The National Crime Agency (NCA), supported by the FCA, is continuing to assess the material submitted by the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign and information obtained following preliminary enquiries to clarify matters with certain members of the public who had raised the issue. They are also making a thorough assessment to determine whether there are grounds for a criminal or regulatory investigation.

The Government expects all companies to obey the law and relevant regulations. Anyone with evidence of such forgery taking place should report it to their bank in the first instance. If their concerns remain, or they do not have a direct relationship with the lender, they should report it to the relevant authorities.

Although the Treasury sets the legal framework for the regulation of financial services it does not have investigative or prosecuting powers of its own and is not able to intervene in individual cases. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires all authorised firms to have systems and controls in place to mitigate the risk that they be used to commit financial crime. Whilst the police have primary responsibility for investigating fraud the FCA also has powers to take a variety of enforcement action against firms that carry out fraudulent activity.

The chair of the Treasury Select Committee wrote to NCA Director General Lynne Owens on the issue of bank signature forgery in July 2019. The matter was assigned to the National Economic Crime Centre for consideration in September 2019.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes estimates on the volume of fraud against adult individuals in the Crime in England and Wales quarterly releases [1].

The ONS estimated that in the year ending March 2021 there were approximately 4.6 m fraud offences against adults in England and Wales.

The ONS also publishes, as part of its data on crime, the total number of fraud offences that are referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) by industry bodies (UK finance and CIFAS) or recorded by Action Fraud each year. In the year ending March 2021, 806,637 cases were referred to the NFIB or recorded by Action Fraud. The ONS also provide a breakdown of this data by fraud type. For example, there were 393,068 cases of banking and credit industry fraud reported and 20,260 cases of financial investment fraud [2].

The Home Office has estimated that the total cost of fraud to individuals in England and Wales in 2015/2016 was £4.7bn [3]. They also estimated that the economic cost of organised fraud against businesses and the public sector in the UK was £5.9bn [4].

[1] Crime in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

[2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables

[3] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/732110/the-economic-and-social-costs-of-crime-horr99.pdf

[4] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/782656/understanding-organised-crime-mar16-horr103-2nd.pdf

Authorised clergy would continue to be supported by the General Register Office and their local register office in the event a counterfeit marriage certificate were to falsely bear their name.

Arrangements are in place for a full investigation which would help to determine a falsely claimed officiating minister was not involved in the production of a counterfeit certificate.

Marriage certificates are secure stock which contain a number of security features that help to prevent and detect counterfeits. Controls are in place to identify and investigate any unusual activity.

This is the same as prior to the introduction of the marriage schedule system, which does not increase the risk of counterfeited certificates in any way.

The Government is aware that fraudsters continue to exploit technology and the internet to commit their crimes. Recent ONS estimates suggest that around 53% of all fraud is online enabled (Crime Survey of England and Wales data covering personal incidents of fraud and not fraud against businesses: Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). This Government is determined to drive down the number of these frauds and to protect the public from their harm.

Decisions on the allocation of funding received by Police Forces are determined at a local level in line with the priorities set by each Police and Crime Commissioner as part of their Police and Crime Plan. The Government continues to fund fraud capability to tackle these crimes. As part of the 2020 Spending Review, the Government committed a further £63m to the Home Office to tackle economic crime, including fraud. This is in addition to the £10m funding that the Home Office commits each year to the City of London Police to run the existing Action Fraud and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau services.

However, we will continue to explore all opportunities to go further on fraud and online, digital crime, including through the upcoming Spending Review.

The Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) was launched by the NCSC in April 2020 and allows anyone who suspects an email, text or other form of communication to report it to report@phishing.gov.uk or forward a text to 7726, free of charge. As of 31st March 2021, over 5,500,000 reports have been received from the public, leading to the removal of over 41,000 scams and 81,000 URLs.

The NCSC analyses the suspect email and any websites it links to and also use any additional information provided to look for and monitor suspicious activity. If any activity is discovered that they believe is malicious, they may:

• seek to block the address the email came from, so it can no longer send emails;
• work with hosting companies to remove links to malicious websites;
• raise awareness of commonly reported suspicious emails and methods used (via partners).

Every report receives an automated email response. While the NCSC is unable to inform the reporter of the outcome of its review, they do act upon every message received.

The automated response also states that SERS is not to be used to report a crime. If a person thinks they have been a victim of fraud or cyber crime, it is important that they should report this to Action Fraud (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Police Scotland (in Scotland). Reports received are analysed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and, where there is sufficient evidence, disseminated to an appropriate force for investigation. Action Fraud, as part of this process, also has the means to direct victims to specialist support organisations.

City of London Police (CoLP) entered into a three-year funding agreement for a total of £1.5m with Lloyds Banking Group in 2019. This agreement has been used to fund initiatives across policing to reduce fraud and economic crime.

This is in line with the goals of the government’s joint public-private sector Economic Crime Plan that will cut economic crime, including fraud.

I cannot comment on the specifics of individual cases.

We are aware that some criminals are seeking to exploit the present demand for pets.

The Government launched a new campaign in March 2020, raising awareness of the dangers associated with buying pets online and deceitful sellers. The campaign, including advice for potential owners to follow, can be found at: https://getyourpetsafely.campaign.gov.uk/.

In parallel, City of London Police, as the National Lead Force for fraud, has been raising awareness about the specific risk of pet fraud. They publicised a story focused on this issue in May 2020 through social media. Their advice was highlighted by a number of news outlets, including the BBC.

We would encourage those who have been victimised to report their case to Action Fraud.

Statistics relating to prosecutions for making a false statement in order to procure the grant or renewal of a firearm or shotgun certificate are available within the publication: Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool. The relevant offence codes are 11559 and 11560. In summary, the figures for the last three years show that in 2019 there were 14 prosecutions and 8 convictions; in 2018 there were 2 prosecutions and 0 convictions; and in 2017 there were 15 prosecutions and 5 convictions.

Data relating to prosecutions specifically in relation to a false declaration relating to medical conditions is not available centrally.

Firearms licensing is an operational matter for police forces. The police carry out a number of checks to ensure that those in possession of firearms do not pose a danger to public safety, including in relation to medical suitability. As part of this process, GPs are asked to provide information about whether the applicant has suffered from a number of relevant medical conditions, prior to the issuing of the firearm or shotgun certificate by the police

The Government is aware of the harms caused by identity crime and that criminals use false identities to commit and enable a range of offences. We are deeply concerned by the growth in scale and complexity of scams and fraudulent activity online. Victims can suffer both financial and emotional harm, and we are conscious that criminals exploit social relationships to achieve their objectives.

Where a person:

• dishonestly makes a false representation knowing that it is untrue or misleading, or knowing that it might be, and

• they intend to make a gain, to cause loss to another, or to expose another to a risk of loss

then they will be committing an offence under section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 of fraud by false representation.

The Government is firmly committed to making the UK the safest place to be online, and we are looking to bring forward legislation to do so as soon as possible.