Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Culture, Media and Sport – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 June 2017.
Matthew Hancock
Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) (Digital Policy)
12:00,
29 June 2017
No, I do not recognise what the hon. Lady says. Cyber-security is incredibly important, and that is why we brought in and put together the National Cyber Security Centre, which has been leading on those issues. The Laws we have are largely the laws that we need on cyber, which is why there was no need for mention of it in the Queen’s Speech. What we do in government is not only the legislative programme; it is also about getting on and protecting people with cyber-security.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
