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26 May 2004 : Column 1655W—continued

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he intends to reply to the
 
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letter from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, dated 5 April 2004, with regard to Iqbal Hussain; [172257]

(2) when he will reply to the letter to him from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, dated 5 April 2004, with regard to Iqbal Hussain; [174147]

(3) when he will reply to the letter to him from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, dated 5 April 2004, with regard to Iqbal Hussain. [175616]

Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 25 May 2004.

Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East's letter to his Department of 26 September 2003, relating to Mr.Ronald Douglas Hall, ref H1091318/4 and PO 731213; and for what reasons the letter was dealt with in the manner it has been. [173102]

Mr. Browne [holding answer 17 May 2004]: I wrote to the hon. Member on 26 May. The delay in responding was partly due to the need to ensure that all avenues had been explored before providing a comprehensive response.

Crime (North Yorkshire)

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the rates were of (a) recorded offences, (b) detected offences and (c) cases brought to justice for burglaries in North Yorkshire in (i) April 1997, (ii) April 2000 and (iii) April 2003. [173410]

Ms Blears: Monthly recorded crime is not published. The available information is for annual and calendar year data and is given in the table.

North Yorkshire	All burglary offences recorded	Recorded burglaries detected by Police	Burglary offences brought to justice
1997	11,359	2,165	(3)—
2000–01	11,658	976	615
2002–03 (4)	11,511	1,211	(5)683

⁽³⁾ Not available.
⁽⁴⁾ Figures for 2002–03 will have been affected by the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard on 1 April 2002.
⁽⁵⁾ Provisional.

Departmental Computers

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his policy is on the disposal of computers formerly used by his Department. [175284]

Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 24 May 2004]: The majority of the computers used within the core Home Office are supplied as part of a managed service by Sirius (the Home Office's IT supplier) and as such are not assets owned by the Authority. Although Sirius are contractually obliged to ensure the erasure of any Home Office data held on their assets, the responsibility for the disposal of obsolete or surplus assets belonging to Sirius lies solely with them.
 
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Those core Home Office assets not covered by the Sirius contract are managed by the Information Management Technology Unit (IMTU) and responsibility for dispersal of assets rests with their Out of Scope Team.

To reduce budget costs, if possible the assets are re-deployed elsewhere within the core Home Office. If not and as Government Accounting rules require Departments to ensure the best possible price is obtained when disposing of surplus IT equipment, a registered GCat supplier for the provision of ethical and environmentally friendly disposal services are asked to dispose of the assets on their behalf.

While the Home Office pays for this service, should the assets be sold on the Home Office receives 75 per cent. of the sale price.

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the role of Fujitsu in providing computer services for the Home Office. [175285]

Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 24 May 2004]: Fujitsu is the main contractor supplying infrastructure and desktop services to the core Home Office including the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) and the Youth Justice Board as a result of being awarded the IT2000 Contract in 2000. IT 2000 is a 10 year Public Finance Intiative contract establishing a private public partnership between the Home Office (excluding agencies and parts of IND covered by the Siemens caseworking service).

These services range from support for software including application management (e.g POEMS) and standard toolsets (e.g. Adobe Acrobat) to hardware devices including desktop and remote access laptops.

They also manage the supply of voice services to the core Home Office (excluding IND) via their sub-contractor Global Crossing.

Departmental Procurement

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of the (a) crockery, (b) cutlery and (c) glassware procured by his Department over the last five years is of British manufacture. [170802]

Fiona Mactaggart: It is Government policy that all procurement decisions are taken on the grounds of value for money.

The percentage of crockery, cutlery and glassware, which is of British manufacture, procured by the Department in 2002–03 is as follows:

	Percentage
Crockery	65
Cutlery	25
Glassware	7.5

Information on the percentage of crockery, cutlery and glassware procured prior to 2002 and its origin of manufacture is not available and could only be obtained by incurring disproportionate costs.
 
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Early Retirement (Police)

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the costs of early retirement of police officers for each force in England and Wales in 2003–04. [173568]

Ms Blears [holding answer 13 May 2004]: The information is not centrally available in the form requested. The cost of early retirement on ill-health grounds is mitigated to an extent by the fact that the retired officer will normally be replaced, either directly or indirectly, by a recruit on a lower salary who can perform all the ordinary duties of a member of the force. A broad indicator of the cost to forces in any year is the aggregate of the cash lump sums they pay to officers retiring on ill health grounds. Based on the estimated number of ill-health retirements for 2003–04 published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy the Government Actuary's Department estimate that the total cost of ill-health pension lump sums in England and Wales is about £50 million.

Gas Cartridge Weapons

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library the advice he   received on the feasibility of converting self-contained gas cartridge weapons to use conventional ammunition. [175482]

Caroline Flint: We do not think it right to do so, thus making more widely available details of the methods of conversion identified so far. The Forensic Science Service identified a number of different ways in which such revolvers and pistols were used with ammunition other than air cartridges. These varied considerably in their effectiveness and ease of conversion and with one exception were not specific to one particular model. Having discussed the problem with the manufacturers of the air cartridge system and an independent engineer it was concluded that the main problem was with the air cartridge system itself which could not be modified to remove the danger.

Ministerial Meetings

Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he next expects to meet representatives of the (a) National Black Police Association and (b) Police Federation. [175049]

Ms Blears: I meet the National Black Police Association as necessary to discuss particular issues. I have regular bilaterals with the Chairman of the Police Federation.

During the period March 2002 to March 2003 Lancashire Constabulary strength increased by 35 to 3,339. At the end of December 2003 Lancashire had record strength of 3,549—an increase of 210 officers.

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