Individual Valuation Office Agency (VOA) offices do not have dedicated telephone numbers or email addresses.

Customer phone calls may be made to the VOA general enquiries phone number. Information on the number of incoming calls is monitored and collated using the VOA’s Customer Service Centre telephony system.

Customers may email the Regional Unit’s dedicated email addresses. Those emails are registered on the VOA’s Customer Contact Log system and are dealt with by the appropriate team for the enquiry, and depending on capacity and the type of enquiry.

A smaller number of customers may also call and email individuals or specific business areas directly. The work that results from these is recorded in our work management systems and goes on to be dealt with by the appropriate team, and where capacity exists.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR) regulates the sending of electronic marketing messages (by phone, fax, email or text), as well as the provision of electronic communication services to the public. The Information Commissioner's Office independently regulate PECR and have been clear that organisations must not send marketing emails to individuals without explicit consent. Where these rules are not adhered to, the Commissioner is able to issue enforcement notices, as well as fines of up to £500,000. The Data Protection Bill currently going through the Houses of Parliament also includes tougher rules on consent and strengthens the rights of data subjects, giving them more control over their data.

Electronic communications are passed across the internet via internet service providers and the routing of an email between an Hon Member and a Government department is dependent on which system and service an email is sent. Ministers’ Private Offices and correspondence teams routinely handle and respond to emails on behalf of their Ministers.

Where an application is made overseas UK Visas and Immigration have a chargeable email rates of £5.48 per email enquiry, this charge is levied to fund the contact centre commercial contract as the UK government believes it is right that those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs of the immigration system. Information is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

Where an application is made in the UK the customers will contact our in-country contact centre. The contact centres provide information about the Immigration Rules and the Points Based System requirements via a number of published customer enquiry line numbers. In 2014, in line with Cabinet Office guidance, UKVI changed all 0845 and 0870 prefix helpline numbers to lower call tariff rate 0300 prefix numbers. UKVI do not generate any income from these non-geographic numbers enquiry lines.

UKVI have in place self selection pages on the Gov.uk website (see link below), as well as effective use of informative telephony message on our help lines to further ensure and assist customers wanting to contact UKVI. This initial triaging activity on our website ensures customers are provided with the correct point of contact within our business regarding their in country or overseas application enquiry.

All licensed gambling operators providing gambling facilities to customers in Great Britain are required to ensure that the terms on which gambling is offered are fair and open.

As part of a joint programme of work to tackle unfair terms and practices in the gambling industry, the Gambling Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority are investigating the obstacles people face when trying to withdraw their money after gaming or betting online, including ‘dormancy’ charges on players’ accounts after a period of inactivity, or terms which remove all funds from inactive accounts.

It is a further licensing requirement that marketing should be socially responsible, and should not be sent to those who have self-excluded. A new online self-exclusion scheme called ‘Gamstop’ is due to be launched by spring of next year. The scheme will allow customers to self-exclude from all British licensed operators in a single step and will significantly strengthen the self-exclusion arrangements available for online gamblers.

The register to vote service has processed over 29.4 million applications and one of the key reasons for the success of the service is it’s simplicity. Mandating the entry of an email address to complete an application to register to vote can create barriers to registration, as not everyone has an email address. This is why we encourage applicants to provide an email address rather than requiring one. We will continue to make sure that applicants are encouraged to provide e-mail addresses, recognising that holding this data can be helpful for Electoral Registration Officers.

My Rt Hon Friend the member for Witham (Ms Patel) resigned as Secretary of State for International Development on 8 November. The meetings the Hon Gentlemen refers to were not arranged by the Department. Further information is not held.

My Rt Hon Friend the member for Witham (Ms Patel) resigned as Secretary of State for International Development on 8 November. The meetings were not arranged by the Department.

My Rt Hon Friend the member for Witham (Ms Patel) resigned as Secretary of State for International Development on 8 November. We do not have a record of any departmental emails being used to arrange this visit.

My Rt Hon Friend the member for Witham (Ms Patel) resigned as Secretary of State for International Development on 8 November. The information is not held by the Department.

My Rt Hon Friend the member for Witham (Ms Patel) resigned as Secretary of State for International Development on 8 November. The information is not held by the Department.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to the Hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston on the 10th October 2017, UIN 6195

The £5.48 email charge is levied to fund the commercial contract as the UK government believes it is right that those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs of the immigration system. Those who use the services are predominantly from outside the UK. Our web site www.gov.uk is the main source of information and advice and is free of charge.

Further details of the financial arrangement in place between the Home Office and SITEL UK Ltd for the provision of Contact Centre Services (UK and International) is not available due to it being commercially sensitive.

The £5.48 email charge is levied to fund the commercial contract as the UK government believes it is right that those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs of the immigration system. Those who use the services are predominantly from outside the UK. Our web site www.gov.uk is the main source of information and advice and is free of charge.

Further details of the financial arrangement in place between the Home Office and SITEL UK Ltd for the provision of Contact Centre Services (UK and International) is not available due to it being commercially sensitive.

The Mail Check service was launched in February 2017. In October of this year 1,685
domains were covered by this service. We do not hold the total number of domains across
government and so are unable to comment on this figure as a proportion of the whole.

The National Cyber Security Centre is operating a Domain Discovery service that will
ultimately give us a much clearer understanding of the government digital estate.

Universal Credit send an acknowledgement of the submission of a claim to a claimant immediately, via a secure message in their online journal. This is a more secure method than email, is immediate and protects claimants’ personal data.

Government takes email security seriously but has no plans to publish details of specific monitoring or vulnerabilities. The National Cyber Security Centre, together with Government Digital Service, advocates the use of the DMARC protocol that makes email spoofing much harder.

In parallel, the National Cyber Security Centre has built a Mail Check service that monitors adoption of these standards. In May 2017 1,070 domains were using the Mail Check service, rising to 1,208 in June and 1,224 in July.

The £5.48 email charge is levied to fund the commercial contract as the UK government believes it is right that those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs of the immigration system. Those who use the services from outside the UK are predominantly prospective customers and in many cases no application will be made and no application fee collected.

Our web site www.gov.uk is the main source of information and advice and is free of charge.

This information is not held.

The financial arrangement in place between the Home Office and Sitel UK Ltd for the provision of Contact Centre Services (UK and International) is not available due to it being commercially sensitive.