Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department works with other governments to tackle internet harassment and trolling perpetrated by residents of other countries on UK citizens.
Karen Bradley
Legislation is in place to deal with internet trolls, cyber-stalking and harassment, and perpetrators of grossly offensive, obscene or menacing behaviour.
The Criminal Justice Act 2015, strengthened legislation in respect of two communications offences which can be used to prosecute misuse of social media: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. These amendments provide the police with additional time to investigate these offences, and increasing the maximum penalty for the former to two years imprisonment. We are continuing to invest in law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure delivery agencies have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of online crime. We have boosted the capabilities of the National Crime Agency’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), which has led and will continue to lead operations to disrupt serious cyber crime at scale, both domestically and internationally. This includes joint operations with industry and international law enforcement partners globally, to disrupt cyber criminals and protect UK citizens.
