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Ammonium Nitrate

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had on the   security implications of the commercial sale of ammonium nitrate fertiliser. [166840]

Ms Blears: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Elliot Morley) on 28 April 2004, Official Report, column 1002W.
 
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Criminal Record Checks

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans to charge charities for criminal record checks. [169860]

Ms Blears: The Criminal Records Bureau charges a fee for all Disclosures, except that Disclosures are issued free in the case of volunteers. We have no plans to charge volunteers.

Departmental Computers

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to update computer (a) hardware and (b) software standard packages used in his Department. [166364]

 
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Fiona Mactaggart: In line with Government procurement policy most Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the Home Office is now delivered through service contracts which include a requirement to update both software and hardware to ensure that technologies are kept up to date and do not reach end of usable life. While there are major projects managing step changes of both software and hardware there is also ongoing work to ensure that both are up to date and relevant to the business use the ICT is being put to. The extent to which either is fully up to date depends on the relevance of up to date technologies to Government business requirements. All ICT investments need also to pass the test of best value and be subject to appropriate investment justification.

The following table illustrates updates to software and hardware planned or under consideration.

Home Office area	Updates planned or under consideration
Core Home Office and parts of Immigration and Nationality Directorate	On going programme of server infrastructure, desktop hardware and software refreshment underway, affecting all core Home Office users and approximately 7,000 IND users.
Immigration and Nationality	The current ICT service provider contract for the IND caseworking system expires shortly. Competitive tendering process for ongoing ICT service provision is in hand. An upgrade of network, desktop and server hardware and software are planned as part of contract.
National Offender Management—Prisons Service	Infrastructure rollout of PC's and telephones has completed. Service contract has a requirement for upgrade to hardware and software on two more occasions during the contract lifecycle.
National Offender Management—Probation Service	An ongoing programme upgrading servers, desktops and printers across the estate is underway. Latest versions of Microsoft Windows will be deployed on desktops.
United Kingdom Passport Service	Consideration underway for moving networks away Windows NT and for desktop refreshment replacing current ICT before end of useful life.

Departmental Procurement Policy (Sea Bass)

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his Department's policy to source sea bass used in catering outlets for which his Department is responsible from hand-line fishermen rather than pair trawlers. [167541]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Home Office does not serve sea bass in any of the catering outlets for which it is responsible. Should this position change the Home Office would follow Department for Environment, Foods and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) policy, who are the lead Department on fisheries issues, on sourcing sea bass as follows:

Defra supports the sourcing of sea bass from sustainable fisheries and handlining, as a relatively low impact method of fishing, can play a part in ensuring fisheries remain sustainable. However, the last report in 2003 by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas on sea bass advised that the level of exploitation of the stock at that time was sustainable and did not recommend closure of the offshore pair trawl fishery. There are currently no restrictions at a UK or Community level on the method of fishing that can be used to target bass. In addition, to address the dolphin bycatch problem associated with the pair trawl fishery, Defra-funded trials of a separate grid device to reduce dolphin bycatch are currently taking place, with the co-operation of the fishing industry.

In these circumstances, Defra's policy is not to recommend a specific source of supply for sea bass at this stage.

Drugs

Mr. Clapham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the estimated level of drugs-driven crime for the UK was in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [168726]

Caroline Flint: Recorded crime figures, which are used to measure trends in crime, include statistics on drugs offences, such as possession, and on property crimes, such as burglary, but do not record whether the latter are related to an offender's drug habits. There are therefore no figures currently available for levels of drug-driven crime over the last five years.

The Home Office sponsored New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW-ADAM) survey, which involved interviewing and drug testing those arrested by the police, provides an insight into the proportion of crimes that are drug related. However, these figures are not nationally representative.

Analysis of the data from the first eight sites in the survey, collected during 1999–2000, showed that 65 per cent. of arrestees tested positive for one or more illegal drug, with up to 29 per cent. testing positive for opiates (including heroin) and/or cocaine (including crack). Those arrestees reporting no drug use in the year before this study reported an average of 46 acquisitive crimes compared to 432 among heroin and/or cocaine/crack users.
 
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Identity Cards

David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has collated on countries which have suffered terrorism since 1986 and which, while suffering from terrorism, used identity cards; and which of these countries used cards with biometric data. [169728]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 29 April 2004]: Unfortunately, the information requested is not available. Neither the Home Office nor the Foreign Office have records on terrorist incidents which date back to 1986.

The Government has made it clear that the key to an effective identity card scheme is the security of the issuing process and rigorous and consistent procedures for using the card, together with the inclusion of biometrics stored on a central database.

This is where the proposals for a UK identity card scheme differ from card schemes in many other countries which do not have the kind of biometric security that is proposed for the UK scheme.

The Government believes that a secure identity card scheme would disrupt the use of false identities by terrorist organisations, for example in the money laundering and organised crime, which support terrorist activities.

As I set out in my evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 4 May 2004, this is an assessment shared by the Director General of the Security Service and indeed also by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Internet Watch Foundation

Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what analysis he has undertaken of the Internet Watch Foundation's Annual Report 2004; and if he will make a statement. [166799]

Ms Blears: We welcome the Annual Report of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) 2003, which was published in March 2004, and congratulate the IWF on their achievements.

The report shows a continued increase in the number of reports made to the IWF, to just under 20,000 in 2003. The report also highlights the fact that only 1 per cent. of illegal content identified by IWF in 2003 was hosted in the UK: this represents a significant improvement from 18 per cent. in 1997, and demonstrates the willingness of UK industry to work effectively to remove illegal content. These figures also demonstrate the continuing need for international co-operation to deal with illegal content on the internet: the report shows that the IWF themselves have active partnerships with hotlines and other agencies abroad, and support the UK police in their efforts to encourage such co-operation.

Overall, the report clearly shows the value of a co-operative approach involving a wide variety of partners in combating child pornography on the Internet and other
 
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illegal content. It shows a welcome increase in the number and range of companies supporting the IWF, and particularly the involvement of companies from sectors not previously engaged with the IWF. The involvement of such groups as mobile telecommunications providers, search engines and the finance industry in discussions with the IWF and others to reduce access to illegal content is further demonstration of the value of this approach.

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