David Davis MP asks ministers questions about “copycat” websites.
David Davis has written to a number of government departments asking questions about “copycat” websites. The questions and answers can be read below.
Q. David Davis To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will meet Google to discuss copycat websites which charge for driving licence renewals.
A. Stephen Hammond (The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
Cabinet Office Government Digital Service (GDS) is leading a cross-Government exercise to gather information about the operation of third-party websites which offer services associated with official Government transactions, including driving licence applications.
The Minister for Civil Society, my hon. Friend Mr Hurd, and the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, my hon. Friend Mr Vaizey, are meeting with Google shortly to discuss its terms and conditions for advertising the services offered by these third party web sites. GDS will also engage with other internet search engine providers about this issue.
Q. David Davis- To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 17 January 2014, Official Report, column 730W, on taxation: self-assessment, what steps his Department is taking to ensure people are not charged by copycat websites for services that are offered free by the state.
A. David Gauke (South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)- HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) takes customer confidence in their online services very seriously. Ministers have asked a cross-Government group, at which HMRC is a participant, to work with industry experts to mitigate the risks posed by copycat websites to customers.
Q. David Davis- To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will meet Google to discuss the profits that company makes from copycat websites which charge for the tax return service and appear above Government department and agency websites in search results; and if he will highlight to them the importance of taking steps to ensure that websites with the .gov.uk domain are used solely for these services.
A. David Gauke (South West Hertfordshire, Conservative) -HMRC takes customer confidence in their online services very seriously. Ministers have asked a cross-government group which HMRC is part of to work with Google to try and mitigate the risks posed by copycat websites to our customers.
Q. David Davis- (Haltemprice and Howden, Conservative) To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the prevalence of copycat websites for passport applications and renewals; what estimate she has made of the costs to consumers of using such websites; and what steps she is taking to inform the public about such websites.
A. Mark Harper (Forest of Dean, Conservative) holding answer 17 January 2014 The website www.gov.uk is the only provider of the British passport and passport applicants should use the official Government website.
All third party sites stating that they are offering passport services are required to carry a clear disclaimer that they are not an official passport site or affiliated in any way to Her Majesty’s Passport Office. TheGovernment Digital Service is leading a cross-government exercise with organisations such as the Office of Fair Trading, the Advertising Standards Authority, search engine providers and various trading standard bodies to curtail the activity of websites that advertise their services in misleading ways, using existing consumer protection legislation. Where Government has become aware of websites make misleading claims in their advertising it has brought these complaints to the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority.
Her Majesty’s Passport Office also continues to work with the Association of British Travel Agents to raise public awareness of third party websites.
Q. David Davis- To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will meet Google to discuss the profits they make from copycat websites which charge for passport renewals and appear above Government department and agency websites in search results.
A. Mark Harper (Forest of Dean, Conservative) The website www.gov.uk is the only provider of the British passport and passport applicants should use the official Government website. The Government Digital Service are leading a cross-Government exercise with organisations such as the Office of Fair Trading, the Advertising Standards Authority, search engine providers (including Google) and various trading standards bodies to curtail the activity of websites that advertise their services in misleading ways. Ministers are planning to meet Google early this year to discuss Google’s enforcement of its own terms and conditions for advertising on its search results pages.
Q. David Davis- (Haltemprice and Howden, Conservative) To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the prevalence of copycat websites for the application for and renewal of driving licences; and what steps he is taking to inform the public about such websites.
A. Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon, Conservative) The Department is aware of several websites not connected to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) or the official government website that are offering services to customers who are applying for driving licences.
The DVLA has published advice on GOV.UK to remind motorists that GOV.UK is the first stop for motoring services and that other websites may charge additional fees. The DVLA also directs motorists to GOV.UK in all its leaflets, forms and in news stories and its social media channels.
The Office of Fair Trading has ruled that websites which charge additional fees are not acting illegally. The Government, led by Cabinet Office Government Digital Service, will continue to investigate reports of organisations which may be actively misleading users about their services or acting illegally, taking swift action when necessary.
Q. David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden, Conservative)- To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the prevalence of copycat websites for tax returns; and what steps he is taking to inform the public about such websites.
A. David Gauke (South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)- HMRC takes the security of customer data very seriously. The Department is aware of ‘phishing’ attacks that invite customers to submit their personal and financial information via websites purporting to be HMRC and, once reported, HMRC works with the hosting providers to remove such sites. HMRC also employs an industry leading anti-phishing service, which proactively searches for fraudulent, HMRC branded, websites and removes them. The dovetailing of these two approaches to phishing websites has enabled HMRC to remove well in excess of 1,000 fraudulent sites.
In addition to phishing sites there are a number of websites which offer services such as the submission of a tax return on behalf of an individual for a fee, often HMRC software will enable a customer to undertake the action themselves free of charge.
HMRC takes action to review reported websites offering services to customers to ensure that there is no infringement on brand and disclaimers are placed within the website to identify that there is no affiliation to HMRC. While such websites are not operating illegally, information within HMRC’s online security pages at:
https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/advice.htm
provides advice to our customers to be vigilant of such websites.