Big Tech should fund new police agency to tackle serious online crimes

20 Sep 2026

EMBARGO: 2230 Sunday 20th September

In his keynote speech at Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference, the Party’s Home Affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson MP will today [Monday 21st September] announce plans to create a brand new police agency to tackle serious online crimes.

The party’s pledge will be funded entirely by a new “online crime levy” on Big Tech and AI companies whose platforms enable it.

The new Online Crime Agency would take on the most serious online crimes - from child sexual abuse material, to AI-generated "deepfake" revenge porn, to drugs and weapons trafficking. It would be backed by around a quarter of a billion pounds a year.

The party’s announcement follows the latest strategic assessment from the National Crime Agency, which warned that rapid technological change was the primary driver in serious organised crime and the threat was set to increase. More than two in five (42%) of all recorded child sexual abuse offences in England and Wales are now facilitated online, whilst referrals were up 31% in 2025, compared to the previous two years. Meanwhile the Internet Watch Foundation identified photo-realistic AI-generated imagery as a key driver in increasing reports of child sexual abuse material.

Max Wilkinson MP will use his keynote speech at the party’s conference in Brighton to note that Britain has seen an explosion in serious online crime and that Big Tech has failed to act, leaving police overwhelmed and under-resourced and victims suffering untold harm.

He’ll go on to make the case for a new dedicated agency, which would deliver hundreds of specialist officers, cutting-edge technology, and better training for local forces so cases are spotted early and dealt with fast. This would be fully funded by a levy on the companies running the platforms and services used by online criminals. This will protect income taxpayers and create “a clear incentive for them to act early and finally get a grip.”

The injection of nearly £1billion into the Online Crime Agency by early 2030 would also stop neighbourhood police from being dragged off the streets to deal with forms of online crime they aren’t specially trained to respond to. Instead, they will be able to focus on the crimes currently blighting local high streets such as bike theft, phone theft and shoplifting.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, Max Wilkinson MP said:

"For too long, Big Tech has got away with a slope-shouldered approach to serious online crime. It's time they picked up the bill for a police agency dedicated to tackling the crime that creates so many victims.

"The explosion in online crime is not being taken seriously enough and people up and down this country are paying the price. We urgently need specialist officers who can get a grip on the spread of child sexual abuse, and of drugs and weapons trafficking online.

“The reality is that local officers are being dragged off our streets to deal with a mess Big Tech has enabled - which is exactly why crimes in our communities like shoplifting and phone theft go unchecked. Bringing in hundreds of new specialist officers would free up local forces to focus on the crimes plaguing their communities.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Max Wilkinson is the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham and the party's Home Affairs spokesperson.
Max is expected to deliver his speech at 11:50 on Monday 21st September, in the main auditorium at the party's Autumn Conference.
The new Online Crime Agency would be fully funded by a new Online Crime Levy, imposed as a 0.4% surcharge on the Digital Services Tax, but widened to bring generative AI activities into scope. Even without that widening, the uplift would raise £220 million in its first year (2026/27), rising to £270 million by 2029/30, meaning the agency would have received almost £1 billion pounds of funding by early 2030.
The Liberal Democrats would also introduce a harm-weighted supplement: a charge for every substantiated case where a company's services were involved and the company failed to report it. This acts as a built-in incentive to invest in prevention and detection.
The National Crime Agency's total budget was £835 million in 2024/25. The Online Crime Agency's funding would boost this by more than a quarter.
Statistics on CSAM come from the National Crime Agency’s National Strategic Assessment 2026.