Internet Watch Foundation

 

Mr. Wray: To 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.

 

Mr. Denham: In 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  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.

 

Source: Hansard 4.2.2.