Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle online abuse on social media.

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.

We have introduced a new law to make ‘revenge porn’ a specific criminal offence. Those convicted will face a maximum sentence of 2 years in prison. We have already seen convictions under this legislation and will continue to monitor its effectiveness.

To improve police capability, the Home Office has allocated £4.6m of the Police Transformation Fund to begin the critical work of setting up a comprehensive programme of digital transformation across policing. This money will help provide a step-change in digital capability, funding police led programmes that will work to equip forces with the tools to effectively police a digital age and protect victims of digital crime.

We are also working with the College of Policing to drive improvements in police capability to investigate and prosecute online Violence against Women and Girls offences. For example, we have introduced an ‘online flag’ allowing police forces to record instances of crimes such as stalking and harassment taking place online.

We are driving work through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to keep children and young people safe online. UKCCIS brings together industry, law enforcement, academia, charities and parenting groups to help to keep children and young people safe online.