Ministers have been slow to appreciate the scale of lawlessness on the internet, the Lords science and technology committee said on Tuesday.

In a follow-up to a report in August, the peers said there was still much work to be be done, and they criticised an “unsatisfactory response” from the government. They acknowledged the government had begun to move in the right direction, but suggested the issue of internet security was “more a matter of promises for the future than achievements in the present”.