Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, responding to David Cameron’s announcement on online child abuse, said:

“Online child abuse is a horrific crime that we know is on the rise. So it is right the Government is taking action to address this. The additional funding for UNICEF to carry out global work is welcome. The new Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) is also important, but the Government should now explain why they closed down the existing database Childbase in 2011.

“There are very serious gaps in the Government’s plans as thousands of cases of abuse are not being followed up by the police, putting children at risk. And the Home Office is failing to make sure that the police have the capacity and policies to deal with the huge backlog of investigations.

“We know the National Crime Agency has details of over 20,000 suspected of accessing images of child abuse under Operation Notarise, and yet they have only investigated a tiny proportion of these – and arrested fewer than 1,000. And recent cases have highlighted the long delays in investigating and pursuing those they have information on both by the NCA itself and by local forces. In the case of Myles Bradbury, more children faced abuse because the NCA failed to pass over information for over a year to police in Cambridgeshire.

"Ministers need to say how many cases are currently stuck in a backlog in the NCA.

“Since CEOP was brought into the NCA there has been a series of problems and delays, and concerns raised by whistleblowers.

“Bolstering the NCA’s technological expertise is very important. But it isn’t enough. The Prime Minister needs to get a grip of the backlog and failing systems to make sure there is police action on the ground to investigate those who perpetrate this abuse.”

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