Chamber and committees

The regulation of nuisance calls and texts is reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is committed to doing all it can to tackle this issue – and the scams that can underpin them – using our devolved powers.

Many of the proposed actions from the Nuisance Call Commission 2017 have been progressed and delivered. However, we recognise that further work needs to be done. That is why on 19 March 2021 we published Scotland’s Scams Prevention, Awareness & Enforcement Strategy 2021-24.

The strategy introduces a new framework for tackling scams, with an emphasis on: disrupting scams at source; building capacity, skills and resilience amongst individuals to avoid the risk that scams pose; streamlining the reporting and advice landscape so that people can access the right support at the right time to meet their needs; and improving coordination and intelligence sharing between frontline advice providers, enforcement bodies and wider advocacy organisations.

A key part of this work is supporting technological innovation. Since 2017, we have been providing funding to Trading Standards Scotland for the purchase and roll out of domestic call blocker devices to the homes of individuals in some of the most vulnerable circumstances in Scotland. A recent report on the effectiveness of these call blockers by Trading Standards Scotland indicated that the devices have blocked 779,633 calls and an estimated 1,265 scams have been prevented.

A new Strategic Partnership was established on 12 August to oversee delivery of the strategy, including development of a robust monitoring framework to assess impacts over time. A progress update report will be produced by the end of 2022-23.