(Con):...In the last Parliament we introduced the
Investigatory Powers Act to ensure that law enforcement has the
crucial powers needed to investigate and disrupt terrorists,
paedophiles and organised criminals, and the Criminal Finances
Act improves our capability to tackle terrorist finance, fraud
and corruption, making the UK a more hostile place to launder the
proceeds of crime. There are more than 6,000 organised crime
groups active in and causing harm to the United Kingdom. Serious
and organised crime costs the UK at least £24 billion each year.
Around £5 billion of the annual “tax gap” is due to organised
crime, so the threat is very real. In October 2016, a month-long
operation led by the National Crime Agency and national
counterterrorism policing led to the seizure of 833 firearms,
nearly half of which are viable, and with hundreds still being
assessed.
UK residents are more likely to be the victims of fraud than any
other type of crime. Last week, the National Crime Agency produced its annual
strategic assessment which shows that the scale of threats such
as modern slavery and human trafficking is growing. Organised
criminals are abusing online technology to defraud and extort, to
facilitate the abuse of children, and to advertise the victims of
human trafficking and modern slavery. The rise of the dark web
has created illicit international marketplaces for firearms,
drugs and indecent images of children. The Government are alive
to the significant threat of serious and organised crime.
We have established new partnerships with industry, harnessing
the skills and knowledge they can bring to bear. The Joint Fraud
Taskforce is bringing government, banks and law enforcement
together to lead the fight against fraud, and the National Crime Agency continues to build
on its impressive track record of disrupting serious and
organised crime and safeguarding children. Between April 2015 and
March 2016, its work resulted in more than 3,000 arrests and 915
convictions, with 236 tonnes of illegal drugs seized, and £26
million in assets recovered. In that same period, the work of the
NCA led to 1,802 children being safeguarded or protected. We are
leading the global effort to end online child sexual exploitation
and abuse. The WePROTECT initiative began with a UK-hosted summit
in 2014. It has galvanised the global effort to tackle this
despicable crime...
(Lab): My
Lords, I begin by referring to my interests in the register—in
particular that I chair the independent reference group of the
National Crime Agency and co-chair the All-Party Parliamentary
Group on Policing and security. I am and the whole House are
grateful to the Government for giving time to this important
debate and to the noble Baroness, Lady Vere, for outlining the
terrorist attacks that have taken place against this country in
the last few months...
(Lab):..I
appreciate, of course, that there will be real limits to what the
Government will want to disclose, but how are decisions made on
the resources that need to be made available to protect us from
cyberattacks in a situation where the speed of technological
advance is rapid, and where keeping ahead of the game is vital?
Is the provision of resources to combat the threat of
cyberattacks, particularly by or with the blessing of other
nation states, affected by financial constraints, or do we
provide whatever resources are needed to combat those threats?
Lower down the line, have our police forces been given the
resources, skills and capabilities needed to combat the rapid
increase in the types of cybercrime with which they increasingly
have to deal? Are decisions on how such resources are allocated
determined by individual chief constables and police and crime
commissioners when they draw up budgets, or are such matters
determined on a national basis, and, if so, by whom? The
effectiveness of the National Crime Agency in combating
cybercrime, which recognises no individual police force
boundaries, can be hampered only if individual police forces do
not regard putting more resources into combating this particular
type of crime as a priority when forced to make such choices
through being stretched, which is how more than one commissioner
or chief constable has recently described their current
situation...
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of
Trafford) (Con):...The noble Lord has also talked
to me on several occasions, and we have had several Questions in
the House, about firearms and the effectiveness of the border. As
he will know, the Home Office continually reviews the approach to
border security. Border Force invested £68 million in technology
and infrastructure in 2016-17, a 70% uplift on the previous year,
to make our already secure borders even stronger. Building on the
learning from successful multiagency work on firearms in 2016, a
multiagency firearms unit was recently established. This is being
led by the National Crime Agency and
counterterrorism policy, and it is co-ordinating law enforcement
activity to disrupt the supply of illegal firearms and to improve
our understanding of the terrorist and organised crime threat in
the UK and internationally...
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