(Witham) (Con): I am
listening to my hon. Friend with great interest on this aspect of
child sexual abuse and exploitation, which is a heinous crime.
Will he go on to speak about how the Ofcom role will interact
with law enforcement, in particular the National Crime
Agency when dealing with these awful crimes?
...There are shocking figures, and I suspect that many of my
colleagues in the House will be aware of them. Almost 100,000
reports relating to online child abuse were received by UK
enforcement agencies in 2021 alone. That is shocking. The House
will recognise my experience of working with the National Crime
Agency to which we must pay tribute for its work
in this space, as we should to law enforcement more widely.
Police officers and all sorts of individuals in law enforcement
are, day in, day out, investigating these cases and looking at
some of the most appalling images and content, all in the name of
protecting vulnerable children, and we must pay tribute to them
as well...
(Dover)
(Con):...The National Crime
Agency has identified links with the criminal drugs
trade, modern slavery and other serious and violent crime. That
is because illegal immigration and modern slavery offences do not
just happen abroad. A criminal enterprise of this scale has a
number of operators both here in the UK and abroad. That includes
people here in the UK who pay for the transit of another. When
they do, they do not generally have the good fortune of that
other individual in mind. There are particular concerns about
young people and unaccompanied children as well as people who
find themselves in debt bondage in modern slavery...
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