Written question asked by Claire Curtis-Thomas (Labour) on Monday, 13 July 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 15 July 2009. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Tuesday, 1 September 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

European Electronic Crime Task Force

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his most recent assessment is of the effectiveness of the European Electronic Crime Task force; and what recent discussions he has had with his Italian counterpart on cyber crime.

Answer: The European Electronic Crime Task Force went live on 30 June 2009. It was created by the Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni (Italian Postal and Communication Police) and Poste Italiane (Italian Post).The purpose of the taskforce is to facilitate the exchange of information and analysis on cyber-crime techniques and to establish new techniques and tools for the prevention, detection, mitigation and effective investigation of cyber-crimes.It is too soon to judge the effectiveness of the taskforce as it was only established in the past four weeks; however this seems a useful initiative and builds on the strong existing links between Italy and the UK in fighting this area of crime.

Secondary information