Minister’s warning to peers over new child abuse Bill

SECURITY Minister Ben Wallace has condemned “unjustifiable” objections to a new law aimed at helping police catch paedophiles.

The Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill seeks to tackle “an epidemic” of child abuse by allowing quicker access to data held in computer servers in the United States.

MPs have given their backing to the Bill, but Mr Wallace warned a Lords amendment insisting on assurances over the death penalty could still wreck the legislation and allow paedophiles to walk free.

Peers have previously defeated the Government in a bid to prevent electronic data being supplied to the US in cases which could involve the death penalty.

The Bill allows law enforcement agencies to apply for a UK court order to get stored electronic data from overseas in a bid to counter serious crime and terrorism.

Speaking ahead of the Bill’s return before peers today, Mr Wallace said the “glitterati in the House of Lords” needed to get real and drop the amendment.

He said: “It is horrendous. To stand in the way of police officers getting timely access to that data is just unjustifiable.

“It’s not about political division, it’s about protecting children.

“The point is some people have decided to try and exploit this Bill to play ideological posturing on the back of security and that is not acceptable.

“Indulging in theoretical and gilded isolation from some in the House of Lords goes against everything the Labour Party and the Tory Party stand for.”

The Security Minister has previously warned the Commons of a 700 per cent rise in child abuse being reported by tech companies in the last five years.

He said: “I had to listen to a paedophile plot via an online chatroom to kidnap, rape and kill a seven-year-old girl, about the same age as my daughter.”

Mr Wallace added that he could “sense the frustration” of detectives.