The information requested is not held by the Home Office. The Home Office receives data from police forces in England and Wales on crimes and outcomes of all offences in the notifiable offence list. Online internet abuse is not a specific crime category and such abuse is likely to fall into one of the specific offences such as ‘harassment’ or ‘stalking’. Furthermore, police outcomes measure the number of offences that result in a charge, rather than the number of people charged for each offence.

The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales.

The Government takes the issue of IP infringement seriously, including counterfeit electrical goods, and is working with industry and law enforcement agencies on a number of initiatives to tackle this issue.

The Police IP Crime Unit, launched in September 2013, has had a significant impact having arrested over 70 people and suspended over 11,000 internet domains. In 2014/15 Border Force detained over 1.6 Million IP infringing items, if genuine the retail value would have been in excess of £56 million. Ongoing enforcement initiatives include Operation Jasper, which is addressing the use of social media to sell counterfeit items and work by National Trading Standards and the IPO Intelligence Hub to deal with the risks posed by ‘fulfilment houses’ that supply many counterfeit items purchased online.

Officials have also met online retailers to discuss the availability of counterfeits on their platforms and to help co-ordinate law enforcement action against sellers.

The current consultation process for the proposed closure of some Glasgow Jobcentres started on 7 December 2016 and now includes, as of 19 December, information on the Gov.uk website.

The consultation will close on 31 January 2017.

We expect social media companies, and internet platforms, to have robust processes in place and to act promptly when abuse is reported. The Government continues to work closely with social media companies and other relevant actors and experts to make sure they are committed to protecting those who use their platforms. The law is clear that what is illegal offline is illegal online. Robust 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 two existing communications offences: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 which can now be used to prosecute misuse of social media. The police now have longer to investigate either offence, and the maximum penalty for the former has been increased to two years imprisonment. The Crown Prosecution Service published guidance to prosecutors in October on crimes involving social media. The Home Office has allocated £4.6 million of the Police Transformation Fund specifically to begin the critical work of setting up a comprehensive and joined up programme of digital transformation across policing.

The Treasury does not make assessments of the impact of bank branch closures or reductions in customer service staff on vulnerable older people.

Decisions on the opening and closing of individual bank branches as well as on numbers of customer service staff are taken by the management of each bank on a commercial basis without intervention from Government. Banks and building societies need to balance customer interests, market competition, and other commercial factors when considering their strategy.

The Government welcomed the industry-wide Access to Banking protocol announced in March 2015 as well as Professor Russel Griggs’ recently published ‘one year on’ review evaluating the operation of the Protocol to date. We are pleased to see that, following the publication of the review, the industry is committing to further improvements to protect those affected by closures.

Banks’ and building societies’ treatment of their customers is currently governed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in its Banking Conduct of Business Sourcebook. The Sourcebook includes a general requirement for firms to provide a prompt, efficient and fair service to all of their customers. This includes older people, the disabled, and those who may lack the capacity to manage their account on their own. In addition, like all service providers, banks and building societies are bound under the Equalities Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments, where necessary, in the way they deliver their services.

The FCA has also launched a programme of work on how older consumers engage in financial services and make best use of financial products and services. They intend to release a regulatory strategy and recommendations in 2017.

The Government takes all fraud extremely seriously and is taking steps that will help to protect older people from online banking fraud. In February, the then Home Secretary announced the creation of a new Joint Fraud Taskforce. The Taskforce is a partnership between government, law enforcement and the financial sector, working in new innovative ways to deliver a more effective response to fraud.

The Home Secretary chaired an Oversight Board of the Taskforce in September, where a forward programme was agreed that will focus on: improving the national, regional and local law enforcement response to fraud; introducing a system to make it much easier for the victims of fraud to have their money repatriated; an industry led strategic action plan to address ‘card not present’ fraud; launching a very visible national fraud prevention campaign to provide targeted advice to protect members of the public; and a new collective approach to better support victims of fraud.

Online Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is an appalling crime that this Government is committed to stamping out. The NCA’s 2016 National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime, has designated the threat from child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) one of the highest priority crime threats facing the UK. There is significant under-reporting of online grooming and it is therefore difficult fully to quantify the scale of the threat. The NCA’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command leads the fight to tackle grooming. An additional £10 million in funding was provided to CEOP and this has led to a near doubling of its investigative capability. The NCA and police are investing more resources than ever before to tackle online grooming, including dedicated undercover resources to target those who pose the greatest risk. Oversight and scrutiny of the law enforcement response to online child sexual exploitation (CSE), including grooming, is provided by the Online CSE Pursue Board, chaired by Chief Constable Simon Bailey. Collaborative working between Police forces and the NCA, overseen by this Board, is resulting in around 375 arrests each month for online CSE offences, and the safeguarding of around 450 children each month. CEOP Command CEOP Command has developed a comprehensive education programme, called Thinkuknow, which provides targeted advice to children, parents and carers, including on how to use social media safely. In 2015/16, around 3.5 million children saw the NCA's Thinkuknow educational material. Further detail on the Thinkuknow campaign can be found online at: www.thinkuknow.co.uk

Online Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is an appalling crime that this Government is committed to stamping out. The NCA’s 2016 National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime, has designated the threat from child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) one of the highest priority crime threats facing the UK. There is significant under-reporting of online grooming and it is therefore difficult fully to quantify the scale of the threat. The NCA’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command leads the fight to tackle grooming. An additional £10 million in funding was provided to CEOP and this has led to a near doubling of its investigative capability. The NCA and police are investing more resources than ever before to tackle online grooming, including dedicated undercover resources to target those who pose the greatest risk. Oversight and scrutiny of the law enforcement response to online child sexual exploitation (CSE), including grooming, is provided by the Online CSE Pursue Board, chaired by Chief Constable Simon Bailey. Collaborative working between Police forces and the NCA, overseen by this Board, is resulting in around 375 arrests each month for online CSE offences, and the safeguarding of around 450 children each month. CEOP Command CEOP Command has developed a comprehensive education programme, called Thinkuknow, which provides targeted advice to children, parents and carers, including on how to use social media safely. In 2015/16, around 3.5 million children saw the NCA's Thinkuknow educational material. Further detail on the Thinkuknow campaign can be found online at: www.thinkuknow.co.uk

The Government is committed to ensuring sufficient safeguards are in place to keep retained data secure. Communications service providers (CSPs) must comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003. In addition to these general requirements, CSPs required to retain data under the Investigatory Powers Act must put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that the data is adequately protected while it is being retained. They will also be required to follow the principles of security, integrity and destruction in the draft Communications Data Code of Practice. Furthermore, the systems the data is retained in are built to meet stringent security requirements. Where appropriate, data is retained in dedicated stores and securely separated from business systems by a firewall. The Act requires the Information Commissioner to audit the security of retained data.

The Government maintain regular engagement with CSPs subject to retention notices and have a strong track record of ensuring the security of retained communications data. There was a considerable amount of engagement with CSPs during the passage of the Investigatory Powers Act, including the previous Home Secretary, other Ministers and officials meeting the operators most likely to be required to retain data. Engagement is ongoing as we implement the Act.

Teacher training and education is a matter for the Department for Education. However, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport works closely with colleagues at the Department for Education on child internet safety issues.

The Government is clear that stalking and harassment, which cause misery for victims, are totally unacceptable. The fixated nature of stalking may result in a prolonged campaign sometimes lasting many years. So we are determined to do everything possible to protect all victims of stalking and stop perpetrators at the earliest opportunity – even before the stage at which a perpetrator might be prosecuted. That is why, following a public consultation, we have recently announced that there will be a new civil stalking protection order, to support victims of stalking at an earlier stage and address the perpetrator’s behaviours before they become entrenched.

The number of restraining orders imposed as result of stalking and harassment in England and Wales, 2014 and 2015 can be viewed in the table. Information on the specific restrictions included in a restraining order is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Nor do we hold data on how frequently perpetrators of these crimes seek to contact their victims through action in the civil or family courts. The courts do have powers to deal with unmeritorious claims and applications. The court may strike out the action as an abuse of process or issue an order restricting the litigant’s ability to continue with further applications or claims, either of its own motion or on request by a party to the proceedings.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport regularly discusses Cyber Security with colleagues across government. The cyber security of the UK is a top priority for the Government which is why we are investing £1.9 billion and have recently opened the National Cyber Security Centre to help make the UK the safest place to live and do business online.

Further, the recently published 2016 National Cyber Security Strategy makes it clear that Government is committed to building a secure Internet and sets out an objective for “the majority of online products and services coming into use [to] become ‘secure by default’ by 2021.”

In general, manufacturers of Internet-connected devices should ensure those devices have appropriate security measures built in and seek to ensure emerging technologies are secure by default. Device manufacturers can also help ensure consumers are aware of the need to change any default passwords to a strong password upon purchase.

The Government funds a variety of ongoing research on cyber security to ensure we are able to address current and future challenges, such as security of Internet-connected devices. This includes 13 Academic Centres of Excellence in cyber security research based at UK universities, three cyber security Research Institutes investigating strategically important subjects and the Internet of Things Research Hub led by the PETRAS consortium of nine leading UK universities.

We are introducing legislation through the Digital Economy Bill to require that pornographic material must not be made available online on a commercial basis without age verification, to restrict its access to under 18s.

Government works with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety to keep children and young people safe online. Bringing together industry, law enforcement, academia, charities and parenting groups, UKCCIS encourages good practice. It was a driving force in bringing in Family Friendly Filters, and has recently produced guidance for schools on sexting.

Government also works directly with the ISPs and social media companies to help protect children online.

Libraries play a significant role in providing computers and Wi-Fi to enable people to access the internet and digital services, as well as offering digital skills training and support. The Government invested £2.6m in 2015/16 to install and upgrade Wi-Fi in over 1,000 libraries in England. This means that Wi-Fi is now available in over 99% of public libraries in England.

My hon. Friend is a far more astute reader of IT journals than I am. We are aware of our responsibilities, which is why we have set up the Cyber Essentials website, but I will relay his comments to those who know more about it than I do so that they can reflect on them.