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Police and Justice Bill

One aspect of part 5 has my entire support. As the Home Secretary knows, there has been close co-operation between some Conservative Members and some members of his team in dealing with sexual offences against children. In particular, there was co-operation during the passage of the Bill that became the Sexual Offices Act 2003. Subsequently, there has been discussion with at least one of the Home Secretary’s Ministers and other members of his team on further measures that are necessary. One is contained in part 5, but there are also the issues of encryption and access to information on risk-assessed paedophiles. Would the Home Secretary be agreeable if the chief of the Metropolitan police paedophile unit, an academic known to his team, and I had further discussions with the appropriate Under-Secretary of State to see whether we can use this unique opportunity to deal with one or two outstanding issues?