MPs attack government over e-crime unit funding

But minister insists £7m budget "is not the end of the story"

MPs are demanding more resources to tackle e-crime

The government has rejected mounting criticism of the £7m budget for the new central e-crime unit to be set up within the Metropolitan Police.

Home Office minister Alan Campbell said: "This is not the only unit that will be seeking to tackle fraud. The important thing is that the unit will be working with other police forces that have a funded capability." He added that the £7m "is not the end of the story".

Campbell was responding to a Commons Westminster Hall debate in which MPs of all parties voiced concern at the growing level of internet fraud and cyber-crime.

Ribble Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans said that the government and financial institutions should do more, warning that scams would become even more common as the credit crunch bites and people become desperate for money.

Carshalton and Wallington Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake added that concerns had been aired about the level of funding, and asked how many officers would be attached to the new unit.

Independent MP Richard Taylor, who called the debate, said: "We should have a scam alert day - SAD - because it is sad that we need it."

Ordinary users needed to be made more aware of "spear phishing" and other techniques being used, he said.

Campbell stated that the parliamentary process for the UK to ratify the international treaty on combating cyber-crime, launched in 2001, would begin in January 2009.
He maintained that the government takes e-fraud "very seriously".

The new unit will help streamline the reporting of e-crime, but Campbell warned that a promise that the police will investigate every fraud reported to the centre would "probably be way beyond the resources of any law enforcement agency anywhere".