A Bill to amend the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to increase the penalty where a person fails to comply with a notice requiring disclosure of protected material where it is likely that the material contains an indecent photograph of a child or where the offender has been previously convicted of a sexual offence involving images of children; and for connected purposes.
Law enforcement agencies have become increasingly concerned that encryption is being used to hide indecent photographs of children. This Bill aims to give greater protection to children by raising the penalty for failing to provide the 'key' to encrypted data to the police when requested. It would also make the offence of refusing to provide the key subject to notification requirements when the provisions of the Bill apply. The higher penalty would apply in one of three defined circumstances:where the offender has been previously convicted of a 'relevant sexual offence'where the offender is currently in possession of an indecent photograph of a child although he has not yet been prosecuted for itwhere the court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the protected data is likely to include an indecent photograph of a child.
House of Commons
14 October 2009
This bill would tighten the law around encrypted data by raising the penalties for refusing to hand over a decryption key to police when investigations could involve a child’s indecent imagery. It also adds notification requirements for those affected and sets out three specific situations where the higher penalty would apply, such as prior sexual offence convictions, currently possessing indecent images, or a court finding it is likely the data contains such images.
The bill is at the 2nd reading in the House of Commons, meaning it has begun its passage but has not yet moved to detailed scrutiny or voting.
Generated 21 February 2026
This Bill was presented, through the ballot procedure, to Parliament on 21 January. This is known as First Reading and there was no debate on the Bill at this stage.
The Bill has been dropped by its sponsor and will make no further progress this Session.
No recorded votes for this bill yet.
