I INTRODUCTION

1. In July 2000, an expert group meeting was convened by the Commonwealth Secretariat to prepare drafting instructions for a model law on computer and computer related crime. This was in response to the mandate given to the Secretariat by Law Ministers.1 On the basis of the report of that group, a draft model law was prepared and submitted to Senior Officials of Law Ministries at their meeting in London in November 2001.
2. Senior Officials were of the opinion that the expert group should be reconvened to review the draft model law in light of recent developments, in particular the changes made to
the Council of Europe Convention on Cyber Crime, since the original meeting of the group. The Government of Canada offered to fund the reconvened meeting of the group.
3. Senior Officials agreed that any interested member countries that wished to provide written submissions on the draft model law should do so by the end of December 2001. The
Government of Australia submitted written comments, which were referred to the Expert Group for their consideration.
4. The 2nd meeting of the expert group on Computer and Computer Related Crime took place in London, 5-7 March 2002. A list of participants is attached as Annex I.

II REVIEW OF DRAFT MODEL LAW - GENERAL
5. The Group reviewed the draft model law and the written comments submitted and made recommendations for amendments to reflect recent developments and to ensure that the
draft prepared was consistent with the instructions and intent of the Group as set out in the original report. A revised model law has been prepared on the basis of the recommendations arising from the second meeting of the Expert Group..