UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Rowena Mason, political correspondent
theguardian.com, Thursday 17 July 2014
Labour has called for a review of child protection amid concerns that the police, law enforcement agencies and the criminal record checking authority do not have enough resources to deal with “serious, hidden” sexual crimes on the internet.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, urged the government to draw up an urgent action plan to tackle the problem after there was a 65% increase in reported child abuse images but a 9% drop in prosecutions for child sex offences.
She also questioned whether police forces had enough resources to deal with online paedophile activity after the Times claimed the National Crime Agency had identified more than 10,000 suspects that it does not have the capacity to investigate. It comes after almost 660 suspected paedophiles were arrested in connection with child abuse images on the internet in a new operation, with the majority having no previous contact with police.
In an urgent question in the Commons, Cooper also raised worries about “chaos” at the new Disclosure and Barring Service, where the number of criminals banned from working with children has dropped by about 75% since new policy changes brought in by the Home Office.
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