Offences Against Children: Internet
Margaret Moran MP: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in the last five years have been convicted of offences of both child abuse and viewing online child abuse images. [291751]
Claire Ward MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice: I have been asked to reply.
The number of persons found guilty at all courts in England and Wales for offences relating to child pornography of taking, permitting to be taken, distributing, publishing or possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, from 2003 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in table 1 . It is not possible to separately identify computer based offences from other offences related to indecent photographs.
The number of persons found guilty at all courts in England and Wales for offences relating to child abuse, from 2003 to 2007 is shown in table 2. There is no specific offence of 'child abuse' therefore statistics are only provided where the age of the victim can be identified as a child from the description of the offence. Furthermore the term 'child abuse' describes harm caused to a child arising from emotional, physical, sexual abuse or neglect caused by a parent, guardian, carer, or stranger. A number of other offences such as offences against the person including physical assault may frequently be used by the police to charge offenders.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 significantly modernised and strengthened the laws on sexual offences in England and Wales to provide extra protection to children from sexual exploitation. This makes direct comparisons with previous legislation very difficult. Many new offences created by the Act will not have a direct equivalent under the old legislation. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into force on 1 May 2004. Table 2 includes, for 2003 only, comparable offences under the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
Court proceedings data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of November 2009.
Margaret Moran MP: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to implement the commitments made by G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in relation to combating child pornography on the internet. [291976]
Alan Campbell MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State responsible for crime reduction: The Government fully support the declaration on combating child pornography made by the G8 in Munich in 2007, and followed up by the Declaration made in Rome this year. The Government believe that the UK has the right laws in place to tackle child sexual images, but is always willing to consider changes should the need be identified.
The Government have been very clear that the use of blocking to prevent access to these images is something that internet service providers should do, and we are very pleased with the support from these providers, which has led to 98.6 per cent. of UK consumer broadband lines being covered by blocking of sites identified by the Internet Watch Foundation as containing such illegal images.
The Government, through the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, has also supported the European Financial Coalition, which brings together law enforcement and the financial sector to help tackle websites providing these images for financial gain. The Government support this work, both at UK and at EU level, to make sure that not only do law enforcement catch the perpetrators, but that their financial gain is minimised.
Source: Hansard 13 October 2009 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm091013/text/91013w0018.htm#0910152001049
