Clause 35 - Making, supplying or obtaining articles for use in computer misuse offences
Police and Justice Bill
11:30 am
James Brokenshire (Hornchurch, Conservative)
My understanding is that the clause is intended to implement, in part, the Council of Europe’s cybercrime convention, which was established in 2001, as we heard. As the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Derek Wyatt) stated, agreement on creating appropriate provisions to deal with such protections has been long coming.
Cybercrime afflicts us all in our daily work, with its cost to business and our economy. The ease of conducting one’s affairs is significantly impaired if one discovers that one’s computer has a virus and all the information on it is lost. That can damage a person’s personal affairs or, if they rely on a computer system to support their business, their ability to continue trading. I therefore welcome the thrust of clause 35 and the preceding clauses.
However, I do not necessarily agree with the linkage that the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green mentioned in relation to her amendment No. 60. I take her amendment more to be an attempt to seek clarity for the industry, so that it knows that legitimate computer programmers, carrying out their ordinary business of merely supporting computers, but without any intent to help a computer hacker damage computer systems in this country or abroad, will not be penalised or fear that their actions may inadvertently result in their committing a criminal offence, unless there was some intention or even recklessness on their part.
It was interesting that Government amendment No. 148 was moved formally. I hope that the Minister clarifies the rationale behind the change. It was interesting to hear from the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey that the proposal had been debated for some time, to give the industry that assurance, so it is perhaps a little surprising for a further change to come through at this late stage. The amendment clearly changes the emphasis behind the original drafting, which referred to a person
“knowing that it is designed or adapted for use in the course of or in connection with an offence under section 1 or 3”.
I can understand that the breadth of that provision required some tightening up, hence the Government’s amendment.
It is interesting that the new wording suggested in proposed new section 3A(1)(b) of the 1990 Act refers to a person
“believing that it is likely to be so used”—
in other words, so used in the performance of a crime under section 1 or 3 of that Act. I have some questions about that, although I respect the hon. Gentleman’s comments about the industry feeling comfortable that the provision provides the protections.