§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent meetings he has had on an international level to discuss the problems of internet and computer crime. [30818]
§ Mr. DenhamOfficials have taken part in recent discussions in the G8 Hi-Tech Crime Subgroup, expert meetings in Europol and more generally within the European Union and Council of Europe.
§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been arrested and charged with internet and computer crime since 1997; and what sentences they have received where convicted. [30817]
§ Mr. DenhamNo information is collected on numbers of people charged. Also the statistics available on arrests do not identify internet and computer crimes separately.
The available information, taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database, relates to England and Wales for the years 1999 and 2000 and is shown in the tables. It covers persons proceeded against under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, those convicted, together with sentences received.
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Offcence description Staute Community sentence Suspended sentence Immediate custody Other Unauthorised modification of computer material Computer Misuse Act 1990 Sec 3. — — 3 — Total 2 — 4 — Notes:
1 These data are on the principal offence basis
2 Staffordshire police force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data these data are not robust at a detailed level and have been excluded from this table.
§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures have been introduced since 1997 to combat Internet and computer crime; and if he will make a statement. [30815]
§ Mr. DenhamIn November 2000 my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced a £25 million investment in the police over three years specifically to fight hi-tech crime and to enhance the capability of the police at a national and local level to investigate computer based offences. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit was established in April 2001.
The Task Force for the Protection of Children on the Internet was established in March 2001 and includes representatives of the internet industry, child welfare organisations, the police and Government. Its aim is to make the United Kingdom (UK) the best and safest place in the world for children to use the internet and to help protect children the world over from abuse fuelled by criminal misuse of new technologies.
Government support the work of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). Its aims are to determine whether particular newsgroups carry potentially illegal material; to
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Complaints received by the police 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 Avon and Somerset 976 1,035 852 871 845 Bedfordshire 217 247 161 207 194 Cambridgeshire 458 473 410 390 281 Cheshire 489 600 597 556 495 Cleveland 375 342 326 400 318 Cumbria 419 315 289 286 283 Derbyshire 384 443 400 421 298 Devon and Cornwall 760 911 798 645 704 Dorset 185 164 165 239 267 Durham 166 163 181 168 181 Essex 573 559 510 538 549 Gloucestershire 323 328 272 296 258 Greater Manchester 2,149 2,181 2,211 2,281 1,807 Hampshire 948 897 654 594 523 Hertfordshire 312 466 416 502 491 Humberside 431 444 425 410 364 Kent 657 675 624 678 620 Lancashire 886 848 850 918 682 Leicestershire 292 266 280 315 333 Lincolnshire 169 141 310 328 313 London City of 133 126 69 63 60 Merseyside 2,028 2,270 1,429 1,312 911 Metropolitan police 9,122 8,037 7,154 6,611 5,830 Norfolk 423 519 326 433 365 Northamptonshire 294 331 256 212 221 Northumbria 650 671 629 668 661 North Yorkshire 370 343 363 441 441 Nottinghamshire 754 812 689 817 770 South Yorkshire 473 454 551 666 582 Staffordshire 587 598 511 629 803 Suffolk 287 308 268 374 229 Surrey 497 561 639 477 460 Sussex 864 1,076 1,153 1,734 1,814 Thames Valley 742 604 768 756 768 trace the originator; to ask internet service providers (ISPs) to remove the material from their servers; and to send details of the site to the UK police, or to the enforcement agency of the country concerned via the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) if the originator is abroad. Since it was established, the IWF has asked UK ISPs to remove nearly 30,000 illegal items from the Internet.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 provides law enforcement and security agencies with strictly circumscribed powers to investigate the use of computers and the Internet to engage in criminal activities.