To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had discussions with representatives of social media platforms on authorised push payment fraud.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent authorised push payment fraud.

The Government takes the issue of authorised push payment (APP) fraud very seriously. Working alongside the regulators, law enforcement, and industry, the Government continues to support numerous fraud-prevention initiatives, including the Payments Systems Regulator’s work to enhance information sharing between payment providers, and the near-ubiquitous rollout of Confirmation of Payee. HM Treasury is also investigating amending legislation to enable payment service providers to delay payments beyond the existing legislative timescales in limited, high-risk fraud scenarios, in order for enhanced customer engagement to take place. This could enable firms to take more of a ‘risk-based’ approach to payments processing.

The Government also recognises that many sectors have a role to play in preventing fraud. By including the fraudulent advertising duty in the Online Safety Bill, the government is introducing new duties on online platforms to establish systems and process that prevent users encountering fraudulent content on their sites. If platforms do not comply with this, they could face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their annual turnover, whichever is higher.

The Home Office will publish the Government’s broader Fraud Strategy shortly. The Strategy will set out the Government’s comprehensive efforts to combat fraud, prosecute criminals, and protect customers.

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel