§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the letter of 1 July from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Firms, what action he has taken to promote international co-operation in the field of cyber crime detection and pursuit. [94975]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Government have been playing an active role in promoting international co-operation in this new and important area of criminality. The conference of G8 Justice and Interior Ministers held in Washington in December 1997, in which my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary participated, agreed a set of principles and an action plan to combat high-tech crime. The principles in the Washington communiqué, a copy of which is in the Library, were subsequently endorsed by the European Union's Justice and Home Affairs Council under my right hon. Friend's chairmanship during the United Kingdom's European Union Presidency.
G8 experts, including a Home Office led delegation from the United Kingdom, have since established a network of law enforcement contacts available around the clock to provide urgent assistance to authorities in partner countries investigating computer and internet crimes. The network is now expanding with United Kingdom encouragement, and a number of non-G8 countries including additional European Union Member States have joined.
Further progress was made at the meeting of G8 Justice and Interior Ministers in Moscow on 18-20 October. I was present on behalf of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary. The Moscow communiqué, of which I am placing a copy in the Library, includes agreement on new principles for providing law enforcement authorities with transborder access to stored data needed for criminal investigations. The Ministerial conference has instructed G8 experts to develop options within one year for co-operation in tracing computer communications taking place for illegal purposes, both while they occur and afterwards, as part of a continuing wide-ranging programme of work.
64WThe United Kingdom is also participating in work in the Council of Europe to draft a Cybercrime Convention. Information about this was given by the Minister of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, South (Mr. Boateng) to the hon. Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Lidington), on 21 October 1999, Official Report, column 621.