§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the progress made towards agreeing a Council of Europe Convention on Cyber Crime. [94129]
§ Mr. BoatengProposals for a Convention have been prepared by a Committee of Experts drawn from 16 member states of the Council of Europe. Experts from a number of other states, including the United Kingdom, attend as observers and in practice participate fully in the discussions.
The Committee, which began its work in September 1997, was due to conclude at the end of this year but, due to the complexity of the issues, its remit has been extended until December 2000. The Committee's proposals, when completed, will be referred for consideration to the European Committee on Crime Problems, on which all member states at the Council of Europe are represented. The Convention will ultimately be referred for adoption to the Committee of Ministers.
The Committee of Experts is examining draft provisions which would:
require state parties to ensure that their criminal law includes offences against the integrity, confidentiality and availability of computer data; copyright and related offences; and content related offences such as the possession and distribution via the internet of child pornography;minimise the problem of negative jurisdiction conflicts, where perpetrators of computer crime escape prosecution because the conduct and the mischief it causes occur in different jurisdictions;put in place arrangements for expedited mutual legal assistance between state parties, where delay risks the loss of vulnerable data required as evidence of computer crime. This includes a proposal that state parties should be able to request or require622Wdata holders to preserve for a short period information required as evidence for a domestic or foreign criminal proceeding, while aproduction order is obtained from a judicial authority;and provide for extradition of persons accused of computer and internet related offences.The committee is also discussing whether to propose the inclusion of measures to facilitate co-operation between state parties on the tracing, interception or decryption of internet-related communications relating to criminal activity on the internet.
The Government have been taking advice on a number of the issues from the Forum established by the Association of Chief Police Officers with representatives of internet service providers (known as the ACPO/ Government/ISP Forum).