Extract from PMs
statement on the G20
Dr (Ealing Central and Acton)
(Lab): May I congratulate the Prime Minister on all the
air miles she has clocked up recently on our behalf? I urge her
Government not to forget their promises on anticorruption. The
G20 declaration commits leaders to tackling
“vulnerabilities in the financial system”.
What with the National Crime Agency—which the Prime Minister had
a hand in setting up, as she reminded us—estimating that hundreds
of billions of pounds are currently being laundered through the
UK, will she give us a date for when the commitment to consult on
the creation of a criminal offence for corporations of failure to
prevent money laundering will materialise, so that we can
practise what we preach?
The Prime Minister: I thank the hon. Lady for
her remarks. I did set up the National Crime Agency and it is
doing important work in this area. The new economic crime centre
has been set up, and that is an important step in dealing with
these issues. We continue to look at the powers that are
necessary to deal with money laundering, but we have already
introduced new powers that enable us to take action against those
involved in these matters.
Extracts from second
reading (Commons) of the Crime (Overseas Production Orders)
Bill
The Minister for Security and Economic Crime (Mr Ben
Wallace):...Officials in the Home Office have been
working closely with operational partners to understand the scale
of the problem. Child exploitation and abuse is a very real, very
serious and growing epidemic. The National Crime Agency received more
than 80,000 individual referrals of horrific online content from
the tech industry in 2017, a 700% increase since 2012. In 2014,
the NCA made more than 1,600 referrals to UK police forces
following tech companies highlighting horrific online content.
After just three years, in 2017, the figure rose to nearly
10,000. The agency estimates that in the UK, a minimum of 66,0000
to 80,000 individuals present some kind of threat to children. In
one operation, it worked with overseas partners to take down a
site that contained more than 100,000 videos of child sexual
abuse material that had been downloaded more than 1 million
times...
Dr (Sleaford and North
Hykeham) (Con):...The new system that the Bill provides
for will help us to tackle one of the most heinous crimes: child
abuse. As the Minister outlined, there has been an exponential
increase in the reports of child sexual abuse. As a paediatric
consultant, I have treated far too many children who have fallen
victim to this crime, sometimes with horrific physical injuries
resulting from the abuse and with the mental health consequences
that can occur at the time and later. The National Crime Agency estimates
that a minimum of 66,000 to 80,000 individuals in the UK present
some kind of threat to children. Each child is an individual, and
each family can be badly affected. Any measure that helps to
prevent one more child from suffering this fate deserves our full
support. The Bill will ensure that child sexual abusers will see
swift justice for their actions, and I welcome it...
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